Dylan Ettinger - Bread Of The Dead (El Tule, 2009)

Dylan Ettinger - Side A (Pan De Muerto / Rosa Parks / Cross My Eyes)


Dylan Ettinger is the ring leader for El Tule Tapes and it seems to me that he's got some major skillz when it comes to makin tunes and he also gets mucho street cred for his curating with all the other tapes he's been releasing on this little label of his (like Women In Tragedy's stunning Nothing But Dreams).

Bread Of The Dead is exactly what you should be listening to right now if you live in Salem. I understand that most of you probably don't, but if your locale is lacking sun at the moment, then this tape is gonna brighten your day.

It starts out with "Pan De Muerto" where everyone's hootin and whoopin like it's Cinco De Mayo or something. Shit, I'm just realizing that I'm 2 days late with this review. Oh well. Anyway, it gets into a solid hypnotic groove that, like everything else on Bread, is completely blown out. The fidelity on this tape is utter shit and it sounds fantastic.

From "Muerto" it only gets better, from blissed out drone with skittering tambourines on "Rosa Parks" to the infinite looped rich golden melodies that Dylan wordlessly croons over on "Cross My Eyes." And that's just the A side.

Bread Of The Dead is fuckin beautiful (both sides). Ettinger knows where it's at. Groovy tunes, sweetly packaged tapes, and a super awesome label. Bread is already sold out of it's first batch, with a second one on the way. Tomentosa might have some available, though, if you just can't wait. And I'm pretty sure you can't.

Women In Tragedy - Nothing But Dreams (El Tule, 2009)

Women In Tragedy - Side A (Imaginary Listener / Cloud Revival)


I've been going on a little tape spree lately. I use Animal Psi as a diving board and then meander through the various discographies and labels and MySpace friends and eventually find shit that I never knew existed. Women In Tragedy is one of those bands and Nothing But Dreams is very quickly becoming one of my new favorite tapes. I've been listening to this on repeat for the last couple of weeks and it just gets better every time.

I'm not quite sure where this tape lies. Noise? Drone? Pop? Obviously, the easiest answer is to either A) fuck the categorization or B) incorporate them all. The opener, "Imaginary Listener" is the perfect example. It starts out all innocuous, with a simple drum machine beat for about 30 seconds, and then this wall of static just fucking comes outta nowhere and destroys your ears. The static drops out, your ears adjust as the drums fade back in and there's an unintelligible voice crooning about something, probably about how awesome he thinks he is for making such an amazing song. Then when you'd expect the crazy noise to come back, a beautifully unsettling organ takes it's place. This song alone makes the tape worthwhile.

The next song is "Cloud Revival" and I love how the "beats" aren't normal beats. Everything echoes and resonates so that a single hit on the keyboard echoes out to a full measure. It makes for a very strange and off-kilter low key dance number that I doubt anyone would actually dance to but hey. Ya never know.

The B side features some crazy chipmunk vocals that (probably pretty obviously) remind me of Dan Deacon at times. Except one thing's for sure, the fidelity on this tape is absolute shit, obscuring everything to oblivion. The loopy piano, the skittery echoing beats, there isn't a single sound on Dreams that's in focus and that's why I love it. It runs the gamut from dance pop to blissful noise, all while being completely blown out. If that doesn't sound good to you, then you're reading the wrong blog.