Meadow Argus “This Old Rotten Barge” cassette (Tynan Tapes Temporal)

“Less upfront musical offering and more freewheeling document of historical significance, at least to musician Tynan Krakoff, This Old Rotten Barge is the vehicle through which he casually dismantles various field recordings and blends them with electric organ to create a roving band of chaotic exhibitions. With titles inspired by passages from Woody Guthrie’s autobiography Bound for Glory, Krakoff speaks on the nature of transience and our connection to the places in which we find ourselves at any given moment. Across these tracks, you’ll hear sounds taken from under a bridge on the banks of the Ohio River, from hospital hallways, and from an aquarium in Kentucky. These unrelated spaces offer unfiltered energies and expanses where the mundanity and excitement of everyday life can flourish and wane and rise again when called upon.Equal parts industrial ambient and experimental noise, This Old Rotten Barge is a travelogue of memories and experiences preserved through Krakoff’s recordings. There are moments when the music feels on the verge of complete collapse but is then drawn back and another deeper layer of sound is revealed. You eventually start to listen differently, to discern contours and shapes buried within these prickly and bruised landscapes. A murmured static gives way to distorted voices and metallic mechanisms clanging in sequence. There is a heart here, submerged in grime and hiss and various aqueous depths, though it can’t be easily forgotten, nor can its pulse and thump be relegated to some background appearance. To fully appreciate the emotional depths he’s illuminating here, you have to give yourself fully to his aural intrigues and to the unpredictable nature of these sounds.” – Beats Per Minute, https://beatsperminute.com/cassette-culture-january-2023/