Description
Released March 3, 2023 by Hooker Vision (HV17) in a cassette edition of 40. Pro-dubbed green cassette in transparent purple Norelco case, full color double sided jcard. (hookervision.bandcamp.com/album/spools-gold)
“Tynan Krakoff (DNT Records) has been quietly crafting Meadow Argus’s warped organ and tape works for several years before beginning in earnest to leak them out to the public-at-large in 2021. “Spool’s Gold” picks up where last year’s “The Green Light” left off — warm tape murk and distorted voices crackling through layers of gunky drone and dizzying loops. This is some seriously heady stuff. The A side is comprised of 4 sections, smeared and smudged together into one seamless blend. Failing tape decks and drifting organ tones are punctuated by ominous bursts of CB radio. The 3 sections that make up the B side are equally bleary-eyed, particularly the second section, ‘A Swarm of Bees’, with its Fangs and Arrows-style looping.”
REVIEWS:
“Meadow Argus never disappoints. Fluttering seasickness comes and goes, lost in the spillover from last year’s dreams. Tape loops bleed into the margins where drones fall apart, and quavering organ notes stretch their roots into underground circuitry. There are bizarre systems at play throughout Spool’s Good, where nothing makes sense on purpose, and everything is hidden behind clouded glass. Radio transmissions are connections to another time, cut and scraped from the dying ether. It’s hard not to feel woozy as these undulating sonic flows wind deeper into the fruitful soil, ready to plant new life (for a buncha of bees).” – Foxy Digitalis, foxydigitalis.zone/2023/05/17/the-capsule-garden-vol-2-18-may-17-2023/
“Burnt in was the warning for plasma televisions when the picture did not change for longer periods of time. With this new composition from Meadow Argus, sonic sensations are most pleasurably burnt in. This is not a factor of two long drone sides maintaining finite pathways, but more a complete composition preserving stunning creative integrity. Using contrasting sonic components, Spool’s Gold is a delightful auricular landscape of wild energies held within to cupped hands.
One distinct challenge within Spool’s Gold is Meadow Argus’ use of citizen band radio recordings in a hazy stew of aural calligraphy. These samples are not front to back throughout the composition but rather used as a building block for cohesion. The harsh squelch of CB transmissions has been subdued, becoming dreamlike passages on the road with Phantom 309. Meadow Argus has incredible creative sense and diplomacy with use of completely obtuse sounds transformed into a strikingly pleasurable listening experience. The last release described for Meadow Argus titled This Old Rotten Barge had hospital samples included. The takeaway… nothing is ever forced from Meadow Argus, just perfectly composed into strangely beautiful aural landscapes.
Released on Hooker Vision in a very limited edition of forty cassettes. Please take time to listen and explore a fresh take on sonic constructs.”
– Lost in a Sea of Sound, lostseasound.blogspot.com/2023/05/meadow-argus-spools-gold.html
“The latest Meadow Argus tape appears on the mighty Hooker Vision, and it’s another set of uneasy, nostalgic loop pieces. There’s a faint rhythm pulsing beneath the beginning of the first side, but that gets flattened out as something stuck in the tape deck curdles away and a sharp CB radio voice cuts through the murk for a moment. It comes back after the organ begins glimmering brighter, but it signals a shift into a more jumbled state, almost like jumping into a tornado for a minute. Later on there’s more aggressive CB radio chatter, especially on the second side, where the voices are played backwards, turning into an even rougher textural element. The hissing tape drone turns more seasick, but after a while it sort of melts into a comforting blanket of sound.” – The Answer is in the Beat, theanswerisinthebeat.net/2023/06/24/meadow-argus-spools-gold-tape-hooker-vision-2023/
https://meadowargus47.bandcamp.com/album/spools-gold
