Description
Fresh off their April cassette, Meadow Argus returns with “III,” 34 minutes of tape manipulation soundscapes in an arrid region that was once a lush forest. Tape loops made from field recordings collected in Summer 2009 while on a freight trainhopping journey up & down the west coast. Backwards metallic drum circles unspool into industrial muck of monsters struggling. There is no water in the fountain but that doesn’t stop the mirage. Side A contains eight shorter songs taking Meadow Argus in a new direction, while Side B is a longform piece similar in feel to their previous cassette “II” and should be considered part of the same universe being built.
Meadow Argus is the solo project of Tynan Krakoff, based in Columbus, Ohio.
Named #150 on Tabs Out’s Top Tapes of 2021! www.tabsout.com?p=26299
The Answer Is In the Beat:
“The first side of this tape consists of eight brief tracks based on a microcassette recording made in 2009. A voice is captured, slowed down, stretched out, and muddied so that it sounds like a hideous ghoul-monster hybrid emerging from a swamp and trying to blurt out whatever message it has to say to the unsuspecting, terrorized human who happens to be witnessing this frightful being. The tape is constantly rewound, producing skidding, screeching noises, and on some of the tracks, the voice isn’t the main focus, so it’s just eerie ambient noises and buzzes looped and transmogrified. A few details that seem inconsequential are constantly returned to, making you feel like you must be missing something and should be focusing harder. It hits on a particularly inspired bit of mania at the end, when the severely disturbed voice says something like “I’ll die on my own”. Second side is called “There Is A Fountain”, and it pairs tape manipulations with shivering, creaky keyboards, with occasional interference bleeding through. Voices faintly appear in brief flashes, and while they aren’t as ghastly as on the first side of the tape, their presence is still disarming.” theanswerisinthebeat.net/2021/10/24/meadow-argus-meadow-argus-iii-tape-purple-akronym-2021/
