CHAPEL OF INFINITE ECHO

 RIPPED & DUBBED mixtape #5

Back with two hours of sublime loner expression and most high cosmic collaboration, astral commissions beaming direct from the underground and amalgamated for all seekers and the sonically curious. While this set is largely comprised of 2020 and 2021 releases, the title and inclusion of "Chapel of Infinite Echo" is an acknowledgement of what I consider Ripped & Dubbed's overarching focus: drawing lines connecting the early 2000s' DIY CD-R underground with today's Bandcamp and cassette culture. Expect more thorough dives into the era in future installments.

CHAPEL OF INFINITE ECHO

1. Tarotplane - "öd Ulan um" from Lysergic Forgeries [self-released]
2. Lazy Salon - "Doctor Travel" from Twilight Properties [self-released]
3. Joseph Allred - "Holy Blue Window (for Daniel)" from Fire and Earth [Scissor Tail Records]
4. Matthew J. Rolin - "Hallucinations" from The Dreaming Bridge [Feeding Tube Records]
5. Tenderlonious - "Shahla Bagh" from Ragas From Lahore - Improvisations with Jaubi [22a]
6. Luke Stewart - "Awakening the Masters" from Luke Stewart Exposure Quintet [Astral Spirits]
7. Matthew Halsall - "Mindfulness Meditations" from Salute to the Sun [Gondwana Records]
8. Xenis Emputae Travelling Band - "Chapel of Infinite Echo" from The Hieroglyphic Mountain [Deserted Village CD-R (2004); digital via Larkfall]
9. John Kolodij - "At Dawn" from First Fire • At Dawn [Astral Editions]
10. Old Million Eye - "Color Sense" from Warm Alliance with the Outside [Eiderdown Records]
11. Maarja Nuut & Sun Araw - "144,000 Rose Petals" from Fantasias for Violin & Guitar [MIDA]
12. Qoa - "Ñünken" from Achiyaku [Aural Canyon]
13. Path of the Sun - "Portal of Twilight" from Path of the Sun [Inner Islands]
14. White Poppy - "A Calming Wind" from Sound Meditation Vol. 2 [self-released]
15. Pulse Emitter - "Cloud Refuge" from Swirlings [Hausu Mountain]
16. Charlatan - "A Song for Matt" from Bird Paintings Vol. 1 [The Jewel Garden]

Thanks for listening! If you have a new or forthcoming release you'd like us to consider for a future Ripped & Dubbed mix, feel free to send a digital download (Bandcamp codes preferable) to flowerroomrecords at gmail dot com. 

RADIANT FREQUENCY

 RIPPED & DUBBED mixtape #4

For the first new mix of 2021, RIPPED & DUBBED presents two hours of pangenre underground music sourced entirely from Bandcamp digital exclusives. Bandcamp's role as the 21st century's most teeming distro hub of private press music is explored, with many releases showcased here available for free download on the platform. While many of these artists' more "official" album releases rightfully gained recognition and praise in 2020, I find the ephemeral fringes of their work to be just as (or more!) interesting and insightful, as a mirror into the freeflowing creative current that runs directly from the musician to the listener in a digital instant - particularly in a year when physical media production, shipping, and supply chain disruptions made official physical releases more daunting and difficult to get into record shops and on fans' hi-fis. There was no trend in music more ubiquitous in 2020 than a turn toward DIY (necessary given the circumstances), and that ethos thrived most amongst the back pages of Bandcamp.

RADIANT FREQUENCY

1. Tuluum Shimmering - "Black Satin" [self-released]
2. Bounaly - "Takamba" from Music from Saharan WhatsApp 10 [Sahel Sounds]
3. Matthew J. Rolin - "What Comes Next?" [self-released]
4. James Ferraro - "II." from Neurogeist [self-released]
5. Nailah Hunter - "Nacre Meadow" [self-released]
6. Inner Travels - "Panorama (Part II)" from Panorama Set [self-released]
7. kafari - "radiant frequency" excerpt from radiant frequency ep [self-released]
8. Aaron Snow - "Outward" from Music for Golfing [Surf Shop Downloads & Tapes]
9. Mary Lattimore - "A Unicorn Catches A Falling Star In Heaven" excerpt [self-released]
10. cloudsound - "nebulan cloud" from Air is Sky; digital bonus album exclusive included with Tempus of Diminution cassette [Geology Records]
11. Garcia Peoples - "Shade at Horler's" excerpt from Tomato Sessions [self-released]
12. Dave Heumann - "Whose Streets" from Peregrine Themes [self-released]
13. Tonstartssbandht - "Olde Feelings" [self-released]

Thanks for listening. Feel free to follow us at Mixcloud for alerts whenever a new mix is uploaded, and at Bandcamp to keep an eye on the new sounds that have been filling our home lately.

QUIET LIGHT

 RIPPED & DUBBED mixtape #3

A two-hour mix celebrating some favorite ambient, new age, kosmische, and guitar soli releases from 2020, with special focus on tape labels and self-released Bandcamp digital exclusives. Calming, healing, inspiring zones from Aural Canyon, Leaving Records, Distant Bloom, and others who helped us maintain sanity and a loving vibration thru the year.

QUIET LIGHT

1. Nailah Hunter - "Quiet Light" from Spells cassette [Leaving Records]
2. Laraaji - "Through Luminous Eyes 1" from Through Luminous Eyes digital [All Saints]
3. Matthewdavid's Mindflight - "Tract of Gentle Healing" from Care Tracts cassette [Leaving Records]
4. Mark McGuire - "Whale Codes" from Earth Star Musick cassette [Aural Canyon]
5. brin - "Soft Gaiden" from Homescreen Glow cassette [Leaving Records]
6. Charlatan - "Electric Rubicon" from The Jewel Garden digital [The Jewel Garden]
7. Inner Travels - "Good Night" from Life On Bird Mountain cassette [Alien Garage]
8. Omni Gardens - "Watering Plants" from Moss King cassette [Moon Glyph]
9. Green-House - "Perennial Bloom" from Six Songs for Invisible Gardens cassette [Leaving Records]
10. Aster - "Again" from Light In The Valley cassette [Distant Bloom]
11. Sarah Louise - "Deliberation" from Earth and its Contents digital [self-released]
12. Lunaria - "Umbra" from Asphodel Meadows cassette [Geology Records]
13. anthéne - "Protection" from Protection cassette [Distant Bloom]
14. Tyler G. Holst - "Music for Pomacanthus paru" from Music for Ammonites & Their Utopian Environment cassette [Transcendental Tapes]
15. Spiral Galaxy - "Celestial Omen" (early alternate mix) from Celestial Omen digital single [self-released]
16. Mary Lattimore - "Thirty Tulips" from Silver Ladders LP [Ghostly International]
17. Luke Schneider - "lex universum" from Altar of Harmony LP [Third Man]
18. Dave Walcott - "Night Sky" from Constellations digital [self-released]
19. Andrea Cortez - "Song 4" from The Secret Song of Plants cassette [Aural Canyon]
20. Mat Eric Hart - "Samara" from Spirits & Reflections cassette [Aural Canyon]
21. Buck Curran - "Marie" from No Love is Sorrow LP [Obsolete Recordings]
22. itta - "Arumduri" from ENTER cassette [Aural Canyon]

FUSION SWIRL

RIPPED & DUBBED mixtape #2

A two-hour mix celebrating some favorite global, jazz, and electronic music from 2020, featuring a heap of Sahel Sounds, obscure Bandcamp digital exclusives, and limited edition cassette and vinyl releases from around the world. 

FUSION SWIRL

1. Hama - "Alhoria" from Music from Saharan WhatsApp 08 digital [Sahel Sounds]
2. Lingo Seini et son groupe - "Arne" from Musique Hauka LP [Sahel Sounds]
3. Mdou Moctar - "Ibitlan" from Ibitlan 7" single [Sahel Sounds]
4. Rüstəm Quliyev - "Əfqan Musiqisi" from Azerbaijani Gitara LP [Bongo Joe]
5. NOON - "Elevens" from NOON live at Al Serkal Avenue digital [self-released]
6. Jeff Parker - "Fusion Swirl" from Suite for Max Brown LP [International Anthem]
7. Bent Arcana - "Oblivion Sigil" from Bent Arcana LP [Castle Face]
8. Angel Bat Dawid - "Transition East" from Transition East 7" single [International Anthem]
9. rootless - "more me than them" from emptied spaces cassette [Null Zone]
10. Carlos Niño & Friends - "Actually" (with Deantoni Parks, Jamael Dean, and Nate Mercereau) from Actual Presence LP [self-released]
11. Stonegrass - "The Highway (To All Known Places)" from STONEGRASS LP [Cosmic Range]
12. Mark Tester - "Universal Window" from Super Hiss cassette [Moon Glyph]
13. Spliff Jacksun - "Glow" from Sanctuary cassette [Crash Symbols]
14. Naquadah - "Ruff Stuff" from Ruff Stuff digital single [self-released]
15. FINE JUICE - "Play Today" from Play Today digital [self-released]
16. PERSONABLE - "U OWE" from TUMBLE digital [self-released]
17. Big Flite & Velkro - "Littleslip" from Mutual Aid 2020 digital [Bokeh Versions]
18. The Fairy - "Fantasia" from Lost World digital [self-released]
19. Roger Robinson - "Forward" from Mutual Aid 2020 digital [Bokeh Versions]
20. Ras Michael - "History of the Drum Music" from Live by the Spirit digital [Hen House Studios]
21. Skyminds - "Beyond the Clearing" from Shapes & Traces cassette [Internal Rhythm]
22. Tidiane Thiam - "Djatasoun" from Siftorde LP [Sahel Sounds]

A PATH IS WHERE YOU MAKE IT

RIPPED & DUBBED mixtape #1

3 hours celebrating some favorite experimental, psychedelic, improv, and avant-garde music from 2020. A special focus on music released on limited edition cassette or as Bandcamp digital exclusives, which tend to fall through the cracks on most year-end lists. These are the new sounds that surrounded me in 2020.

A PATH IS WHERE YOU MAKE IT

1. Michael C. Sharp - "Good Deep Down" from Trip Further cassette [Aural Canyon]
2. Grapefruit - "Divine Invasion" from Light Fronds cassette [Moon Glyph]
3. M. Geddes Gengras - "loggerhead" from it seems like all this life was just a dream digital [self-released]
4. Ami Dang - "Ajooni" from Meditations Mixtape, Vol. I [Leaving]
5. Joshua Massad & Dylan Aycock - "One" from Joshua Massad & Dylan Aycock [Scissor Tail Records]
6. 75 Dollar Bill Little Big Band - "I'm Not Trying to Wake Up" from Live at Tubby's [self-released digital; Grapefruit LP via Ba Da Bing]
7. Tambourinen - "The People" from Wooden Flower [Avant-Unity Music cassette; Centripetal Force / Cardinal Fuzz LP]
8. Powers / Rolin Duo - "Ageless Phase" from Powers / Rolin Duo LP [Feeding Tube Records]
9. Tarotplane - "The Feedback Sutras" from The Feedback Sutras LP [VG+ Records]
10. Prana Crafter - "A Path Is Where You Make It" from MorphoMystic LP [Feeding Tube / Cardinal Fuzz]
11. Ron Jons Surf Shop - "Ancient Evenings" from Goop Scoops cassette [C/Site Recordings]
12. Sunwatchers - "The Earthsized Thumb" from Oh Yeah? LP [Trouble In Mind]
13. Rose City Band - "Wildflowers" from Summerlong LP [Thrill Jockey]
14. Tuluum Shimmering - "Bird Song" from Bird Song digital [self-released]
15. Cloudsound - "Eclipsal Uncataclysm" from Tempus of Diminution cassette [Geology Records]
16. Peak Eloquence - "No 2" from The Cancer Ward digital [The Jewel Garden]

INTRODUCING: RIPPED & DUBBED

INTRODUCING: RIPPED & DUBBED

Welcome,

I've been intimately involved in the DIY/underground/experimental/private press music scene for the past fifteen years as a musician, label head, booker, promoter, and DJ. During the entire time I have participated in this intentionally clandestine music community, aspects of traditional or vintage recording techniques and media have bumped up against new digital trends in the creation, dissemination, archiving, and promotion of music, preserving analog methods inside a ever-unfolding Now scroll. The relationship has been mutually beneficial in some ways--new vinyl editions of long out-of-print, impossible-to-find titles being rolled out after racking up plays through YouTube's autoplay algorithm; free and widely available online digital archives of every Dead audience tape in existence; the ability to fully preview and easily order the latest cassette from your favorite micro-label on Bandcamp--yet the ultimate dominance of digital and its flood of listening possibilities amongst even the most obscure subgenres has meant that many works possibly worthy of larger canonization are being ignored or forgotten. Worse, the brutality of this unceasing ephemeral update is apparent in the scope of what we've lost along the way: As the mid-aughts MySpace and BlogSpot pages for home-burned CD-R and deluxe 180g vinyl pressings gave way in the 20-teens to a preference for pro-dubbed cassettes and Bandcamp, we've witnessed countless bands, labels, music mailorders, and digital publications focused on the experimental edge of independent music vanish into the ether, leaving a ghost-print in broken Mediafire links or Wayback Machine caches - an entire half-generation of writers and musicians remembered only by hazy memory and the few souls who saved back-issues of the Wire or held on to their Boa Melody Bar hauls. Just a fraction of the groundbreaking experimental music released on CD-R, cassette, and lathe-cut record in tiny editions (usually 50 copies or less) has made the leap to digital streaming, yet this work is no less valid due to its relative obscurity or rarity (I envision Light in the Attic-style box sets sparking a full-on revival in the coming decades).

A comprehensive account of the greatest hits and most lasting echoes of 21st century underground music would require the participation of many; through Ripped & Dubbed's audio essays, mixes, and interviews, I am beginning the work of pitching in my perspective of this slippery scene. 

I'm launching Ripped & Dubbed with a three-part digital mixtape series hosted on the Flower Room Mixcloud, focusing on new music from 2020 that carries forward the spirit of experimentalism and musical ingenuity into the present day. Join me here for fully-linked liner notes on all mixes and podcast episodes, as well as additional essays, interviews, and musings on the contemporary underground. 

Thanks for reading, and thanks for listening. I'm looking forward to hanging out.

Matt LaJoie