Black Stepdad

Solo project from Cardiff. This time around the sounds are dark, lo-fi and have a floppy dubbish edge (albeit it with no beat or anything close). I keep thinking I hear saxes in the background, but I’m pretty sure that’s bleed-through for cassette recycling. Still, it adds to the mystery. Ah… Wales.

KPT Michigan is Germany’s Michael Beckett. Black Stepdad is (I think) a solo venture by Cardiff’s Murray S Ward. On his side of the split, KPT creates a murky universe of classicist German bricks, but more in the style of Neu! (or some ZickZack units) than anything particularly Kosmische. It’s a great change of pace, with its blen of electronics and gloging guitar. The Stepdad side is more diffuse - a rustling cloud of oddball events. Not unlike a collision between early NWW and the spaciest/dopiest manoeuvres of mid-period Hawkwind

One-man project from Wales. More than that I do not know. The first cassette is thick-bellied electronic rasping, which pummels one’s mid-section with effects-laden scunge and guiter, until a great soreness develops. And the vocal parts are so screwed up, they almost sound Welsh! Hose Nose is similar as regards its sonic range, but the material’s interior is not nearly as rough. It slides up and down one’s waist like a brass cigar band. And when the rondelays start, it feels kind of nice actually.

This tape is insane. The same intense, abstract, lo-fi, subsonic piece plays on either side of this recycled cassette.

It sounds really quiet even now at loud volume, except the bass is now reverberating my skull. I bet if I played it full volume it would still sound like low volume and I would bob myself.

I have never heard the likes. It is starting to make me feel like I have a sinus infection. The dog is hiding under the table.

This is like some skull-rushing, garage-distorted noise ambient exploration.

Maybe I am a sick bastard but I love it. I bet I could scare the shit out of some people with it.

What the hell is Black Stepdad? Can’t fathom whether this is Emperor’s New Clothes or subversively warped sonic entropy. Not a wedding band.

This album couldn’t have fallen on more welcoming ears. From top to bottom, this split exudes fantastically noisy, cluttered soundscapes, minimalist structures and enough sonic nuance to sustain interest throughout. kptmichigan opens the first half with the excellent Bluster, an audio onslaught of noise/drone mastery, lined with subtle percussive residue and delicate sample manipulation. This mastery is most palpable (and palatable) during brash transitions from one textural cluster to the next. Lippischer Sommer displays comparable flair for evocative, engaging harmonic material, varnished with gritty, ruffled production. The second half belongs to Black Stepdad, who continues in similar style and standard. Somehow, the tracks feel weightier, perhaps owing to more active harmonic movement on drone bedding. Imagine dark industrial sounds from Cluster’s 71 album fused with the understated musical depth of Alog or Benoît Pioulard, and you’re not far off. Hugely enjoyable, sensitively-conceived work, can’t wait to hear more. ST

With a name like kptmichigan and collage cover art featuring cartoons and porno, I was expecting some Fag Tapes/American Tapes basement scuz variety. But kptmichigan really went into more of the pretty drone variety, surprising me with some well-executed and varied movements of tone.

Black stepdad also threw me for a loop with their slow-burn organ sounds (to begin with anyway) that reminded me of some ritual weirdness. I’m reminded of the great Devillock with the long drone organ and the weird vocal sounds and the skittering other-ness that generates from somewhere.

Both of these bands sound pretty damn impressive on this release and you should keep an eye out for more.