tuluum shimmering / the exhalers

 tuluum shimmering ~ space is the place / prince of peace (branch tapes, 2015)

"reissue of 2 cdrs previously issued separately by artist. several years back Jake (Tuluum Shimmering) offered to send recordings out to those who sent him something in the mail. I went ahead and sent some things and in return got an amazing box back several weeks later. Included were these two discs. two single track long pieces that just blew me away and continue to blow me away to this day. over the years the discs Ive owned have become worn or almost lost in the chaos and the need to have these recordings given a second life, especially on a physical format became important in my mind. Tuluum Shimmering recordings always seems to head towards somewhere very sacred and these two recordings are some of the strongest journeys for me. much thanks for the chance to release this." josh/ tomentosa

'la música de tuluum shimmering parece dirigirse siempre hacia un lugar muy sagrado, y estas dos grabaciones son, para mí,  dos de sus viajes más poderosos. muchas gracias por darme la oportunidad de reeditarlas."

out of stock ~ listen ~ download

 the exhalers ~ bay of light, frases de entretanto (branch tapes, 2015)

"I sat on my stoop at dusk last night remarking on the loss of the divine. how the landscape in front of me now so heavily civilized, felt razed and distant. within moments the landscape shifted and the power lines and buildings seeped into the background and muted as the landscape exerted it’s true continuous nature that I had just been unable to see. these recording seem to bridge that gap; expressing that which is razed but also paying homage to something greater that runs beneath it all. there’s a piece on the second side that took me many listens to even hear, to really listen and have set in to my conscious to the point of it being my most favorite part of the tape. It was always there but only the shift of my own perspective brought about true appreciation. the artwork, dubbing and putting together of this tape went from deliberate ideas to something that existed beyond my immediate vision; something that brought me out of the sky and down to the point where the sea laps at your feet and the landscape folds out behind your back strong but ebbing at the shore. many thanks for the chance to release this." josh/tomentosa

algo me dice que la canción a la que se refiere josh es 'moonshine tale'. demasiado especial para describirla, tan sólo las palabras de josh. pura melancolía.

out of stock ~ listen ~ download

frase infinita

 frase infinita ~ trilho da nascente / trilho do poente (exo tapes, 2013)

~ dois temas circunstanciais diluídos pela colisão  

num rascunho mal apagado

debaixo de uma Estrela Assombrada ~

más cosas bonitas de João (The Exhalers, jccg), field recordings que sin parecerse (sin piano, sin música que no sea la que emiten los pajaritos, ranas...parecen casi orquestados!) me recuerda a 'music from the guardhouse: a play for magnetic tape recorder' de lieven martens moana. una sinfonía de miles de sonidos animalescos no identificados que es la naturaleza en ebullición. algunos fueron grabados en una pequeña isla desierta en Mondego ~a la que João llama Berlenga~ otros en un bosque detrás del mar y otros pertenecen a unas viejas cintas de cassette de su tío en África. me encantan los búhos cantarines del final...

listen/download ~ buy the cassette

jccg

 jccg ~ eje (dep tapes, 2013)

"JCCG is a musician from Portugal who makes songs that sound bashed up but full of love. They're scraps, really ~ slivers of decaying guitar playing, slices of jam sessions. but boy, do they sting. like memories when the form and facts have fallen away and just the emotion remains. I've gone on about him many times before. He's got a new tape coming out on Mexican label Department Tapes. It's called 'Eje', which means axis in Spanish, and you can listen to the title track here via this slo-mo video of a kid playing hula hoop. there's something super-compressed New Order-y about it, which is obviously a plus." dummy

hay tres sellos que últimamente me hacen muy muy feliz, carpi, rainbow cult y department tapes, francia, florida y méxico, lo diminuto y lo entrañable en orgánicas e hipnagógicas dosis. esos sellos que transmiten seguridad por el estilo tan concreto, por el aura tan especial que desprenden y que parece que van a existir siempre ofreciendo deliciosas cintas mágicas. department tapes acaba de editar a jccg, terlu, wave temples, dolphin tears, indias, indios y uton. ¡seis! no hay palabras para tantas cintas favoritas en una misma hornada. todo está unido, porque todas tienen en común ese sonido orgánico, contemplativo, relajante, onírico y lo-fi que me encanta. hace poco caía rendida con rainbow cult, sello que acaba de empezar y que también parece leerte la mente: editan justo lo que querrías, musical y estéticamente, ver editado (poco a poco espero poder ir dejando en el blog algunas cosas de rainbow cult y carpi).

'eje' de jccg ~ nuestro querido, fiel y casi invisible joão costa gonçalves de the exhalers y artífice de exo tapes, ~ suena como una perfecta cinta de department tapes pasada por los filtros de la nostalgia del verano: acordes sencillos y efectos, suaves melodías que no llegan nunca a explotar sino que se diluyen sin liberarse en bucles y texturas preciosas. un sueño de verano, como la foto de su perfil de last fm, joão apoyado en la barandilla de un barco, cruzando de tarifa a ceuta o tal vez rumbo a una isla secreta. no hay guitarra en el mundo que suene así de bonita: abduce y es abducida por el clima siempre acuático y ensoñador y vuelve a ser el más apreciable argumento de nueve sugerentes, pacientes y despejadas tonadillas bucólicas que me recuerdan a un mark mcguire adormecido y casi grogui en una jam sin fin. o incluso, de refilón y salvando las muchísimas distancias, a the cure en la canción '6'. pero, con permiso de 'wending&wandering', 'eixo', 'rare twee', 'splash clash tempo', days of days' hechiza casi la que más con una melodía soleada, jovial y fluorescente, tan agradable y evocadora que me quedo muda.

listen ~ buy

lace bows

lace bows ~ bows of summer (exo tapes, 2013)

"for the summer breeze and the winter warmth"

 "Lace Bows is Joana Francisco, an aural traveller with the sole mission of documenting the hypothetical existence of other worlds. The explorations are registered through captured sound waves and serve as audio documentaries of these worlds eventual existence, as a mere possible representation of them." wasser bassim

Ltd. edition of 25

Artwork by Whatever™

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whatever™

  whatever™ ~ no au! (exo tapes, 2013)

"no au! is a mix of concrete sounds recorded during the ethnographic investigation for the Saber Fazer exhibition as part of Câmera Escura, a projecto Buh! production for Guimarães 2012 ~ European Capital of Culture. Saber Fazer is a photographic exhibition, a video installation and a sound installation which explores the universe of Guimarães' local 'know-hows', particularly those associated with traditional professions and important regional industries, namely tanning and knife making, but also things of a more contemporary nature such as robotics. 

thus, in the cold basement of a parking lot echo the soundscapes created by Gil Mac to inhabit the photographs of Pedro Medeiros of the three trades represented. Madroa (a tannery), a family-run business on the verge of extinction; Herdmar (a knife making factory), a family-run business in expansion; the University of Minho's Algoritmi Centre's Robotics and Automation Laboratory, a research centre which invents and projects the future; are the interlocutors portrayed. at the end of the course, Nuno Patinho's and Ricardo Seiça's video installation can be found, prompting one to use headphones and thus listen to each interviewee talk about their trade, its history and its processes, whilst simultaneously omitting the sound installation present in that exhibition space. from the wooden tanning tanks used to dye hides, to the monstrous Russian machines used in the stamping of knives; the sound of robots interacting with the surrounding reality finally completing the trilogy of this sound journey. Whatever™... on side B(onus) immerse yourself in a sonic rotating robotic corpse megamix cobbled together by Meadowlands, Lace Bows and Qwerty. this moment of androidal bliss brings to an end the magnetic mayhem of Exo Tape." exo tapes

fotos: zach mccaffree

sold out ~ listen

the exhalers

 the exhalers ~ dive hard (exo tapes, 2012)

"Portugal's João (aka Mediafired, jccg, and Sofa Pits) returns with a new track from his delphinidae-inspired project, The Exhalers. according to João, 'Pearls and Shells' is 'again a little narrative through the eyes of a dolphin and its relationships, in which basic emotions/affections are expressed in that fluffy, spontaneous, mammal way.' It's hard to beat that description, as it's just so easy to imagine this winding, mercurial piece as a backing track (or cosmic conversation?) within the daily adventures of our four-lobed brained friends. the heavily effected tones of the casio ctk-495 also add an appealing element of simplicity that make it all easier for our own two-lobed brains to calm the fuck down for a minute. meditation aid? yes, definitely. 

this track will serve as the finale of a new musical 'trilogy' entitled Dive Hard. check out trailer for that here. we're excited to see how this semi-narrative, sonic experience takes shape, but in the meantime, take a moment to let this track wrap your head in digital ring bubbles and carry it off to who knows where." international tapes

foto: emir ozsahin

sold out 

pearls and shells 

 look who's back!~missed you so much

former selves ~ lace bows ~ the exhalers ~ branches

 former selves/the exhalers/branches/lace bows ~ cd-r tour (exo, 2012)

cdr de la gira por europa de Former Selves, Lace Bows, The Exhalers y Branches, con canciones inéditas de cada uno. se puede comprar en la página de exo y en los propios conciertos y contiene títulos tan bonitos como 'puxas polo meu lado bon', 'delicia de mar', 'breathe away', 'everything in opposition' (una versión ligeramente distinta a la incluída en el último recopi de microphones), 'let's sail and play!' o 'paragueña'... de sobra está decir que es un regalo caído del cielo porque todos son grupos favoritos habituales de nuestro blog. aprovecho además para anunciar que esta noche quien quiera podrá disfrutar y levitar y ¡emocionarse! con su directo porque tocarán en Porto a partir de las diez de la noche. más información, aquí

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europa rural / berlenga

europa rural / berlenga ~ split cs (exo tapes, 2011)

exo tapes se está convirtiendo poco a poco en un sello a seguir casi ciegas, junto a sloow tapes, cabin floor esoterica, hooker vision, tranquilitity tapes, rotifer... todo lo que editan tiene un sonido especial, reconocible al instante, como si  joão costa gonçalves estuviese detrás de todas las grabaciones: jccg, the exhalers, mediafired y meadowlands. hay algo en todos ellos que me hace tenerle un cariño inexplicable a esas tres letras. no es una novedad, cuando creas un sello tan pequeñito, y si es de cintas de cassette todavía más, lo haces para publicar la música que de verdad te apasiona. ser fan antes que músico, para mi tan tan tan importante.

europa rural y berlenga, de los que sólo sé que son portugueses, siguen la senda y la filosofía de todo lo que joão ha publicado hasta ahora. melancolía acústica sobre un colchón de teclados, un paraíso ambient, melodías desenfocadas, ensoñación atmosférica, aires a monopoly star searchers, former selves, mark mcguire, cetacean nation cassettes,... siempre ahí la naturaleza, el agua, la nostalgia, acariciando como nunca en la preciosísima canción-refugio 'violas' de berlenga. si me obligo a quedarme con sólo una, con permiso de 'os días máis curtos' y 'violas', sería 'untitled 1', o tal vez 'untitled 2' porque en realidad son dos que son una, de europa rural, gozosamente contagiosas y refrescantes, perfectas para hacer el recopilatorio perfecto en el que también asome la nariz 'waterfalls introduction' de monopoly star searchers. ojalá el micromundo fan en el que nos movemos aprecie lo suficiente a exo tapes para que sobreviva durante mucho mucho tiempo

fotos: beth hoeckel & inès amd

sold out ~ download

jccg

jccg ~ lancil (exo tapes, 2012)

"a few days ago I was stumbling around the soundcloud-ether and became transfixed by these mysterious guitar jams from someone under the name of jccg, the work of João from Coimbra, Portugal, who runs Exo Tapes. his music is made up of slowly unfurling and decaying guitar lines, adding up to a textural meditation with more than a hint of the NJ beach slacker vibe of something like Ducktails." rose quartz

"if you wander back through the jccg extensive SoundCloud library, you’ll find him tinkering with a variety of sounds. but whether he is noodling around with guitar tones or layering synth textures, he always keeps it gravitating around an ambient nucleus. “Scapes” is no exception with its fuzzy, warbling synths and lightly ticking drum machines. if you could hold a stethoscope up to the chest of a cool, seaside cavern, I imagine that the heartbeat would sound a little something like this." portals

las canciones de jccg son tan bonitas y tan sencillas, me encantan. como todo lo que hace joão, que ya me conquistó con the exhalers y vuelve a conquistarme con jccg. guitarras y sintetizadores transoceánicos al más puro estilo matt mondanile meets mark mcguire. joão in the ocean, pura ensoñación

collage: ben giles

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