bla̅a̅cmäjik

"A Really Deep Groove (Aleph to Bet)" by REPTIEL from their album Down Below World, released by Cubby Control Records. Artwork by Anselm Yew, depicting Sine and the Spirit Usher falling into the deep groove taking them to the Down Below World.

A Really Deep Groove (Aleph to Bet) from #REPTIEL's latest album "Down Below World"

Preserved in Amber by REPTIEL from their new album Down Below World

Or find it in all the other usual online places like Apple Music, Amazon, Spotify and more.

The enigmatic blāācmäjik reports that it "has been recording music for over 25 years in its adopted city of San Francisco ever since purchasing a Tascam Porta 05 Ministudio 4-Track Cassette Recorder in 1995." Not much else is known about blāācmäjik other than it describes itself as as "poorly designed AI" who lives in San Francisco, believes that "music is magick - black magick" and has released one other album back in 2019, Plight of the Avian Aliens, which blāācmäjik claims was "transmitted by an entity called The Broadcaster during the Earth years 2017 and 2018."

San Franisco today, as described by #Bauhaus - #TheSkysGoneOut (at San Francisco, California) https://www.instagram.com/p/CE7ok6bh-Vh/?igshid=o82goyxfzjtr

REPTIEL's Audio Vérité Series is a vehicle for the band's spontaneously produced music recorded initially at their rehearsal space. Most of the tracks are derived from impromptu performances of improvised music never played before and perhaps never to be played again. Some tracks are segments of jams or other sounds made at rehearsal, and then later looped and/or run through effects on a computer at home, often with overdubs added to them, which may also be recorded sounds from rehearsals, or vocals, keyboards or other sounds added at home. The end result is Finished Product, or FP.

From the Archives (week 5): "Spring String" by Gnom i Snegovik from the as yet unreleased album Mystirios Anruf. Gnom i Snegovik was an experimental Russian band based in St. Petersburg. Their leader Psy Indeec gave me the files and artwork of the album Mystirios Anruf to release a number of years ago on Cubby Control Records, but I still haven't gotten around to it. It will happen, though, because I love their music, and as this track indicates, the album contains more crazy, wild yet soothing sounds. CCR has released two other Gnom i Snegovik albums: Myzel and Last Snowman.

From the Archives 2 (a weekly feature from Cubby Control Records): "See Level" by REPTIEL, performed live (and mostly acoustic save for a Moog) at (the now defunct) Viracocha in San Francisco in March 2015, opening for Benjamin Cohen. When we were asked to open at this show, we were told we needed to play mostly acoustic (because of loud noise ordinances). So we brought acoustic guitar and bass, a few pieces of our drum set, and then we were able to utilize Viracocha's piano. However, the upright piano was facing the wall on the stage, and the sound person didn't want us to try to move the piano (for good reason), so Alec had to sit facing away from us, which made it difficult to cue each other. It took a few songs to get into the groove, but got there, and "See Level" was once of the highlights. Jason Y. is on acoustic guitar, Brian Weaver on acoustic bass guitar, and Jason G. is using brushes on his drums. REPTIEL's set was recorded using Weaver's handheld Zoom H4 recorder placed at the sound person's control booth.

From the Archives (a new weekly feature from Cubby Control Records in which some audio will be presented from the CCR archives): "I Have No Irony Now" by The Cubby Creatures  was a reworking of an earlier Cubby Creatures' song, "I Have Ebola Now." The original song was written by Jol as a sort of ironic take on feeling paranoid about getting sick. Ebola was making the news in the mid-1990s with outbreaks in Gabon and Zaire, which is when the original song was written. That song is very prescient for this coronavirus time but perhaps a little too close to home. The reworked version, "I Have No Irony Now," is also prescient but probably easier to stomach. The song was re-arranged by Bill with new lyrics written mostly by Karl and was in response to the period after the 9/11 attacks in which it seemed that you could not make light of what happened. Irony was dead. The world had changed and would never be the same again we were being told. The Cubby Creatures never recorded the song (in any of its arrangements) in a studio setting, but this version performed on KALX 90.7FM Berkeley in November 2001 after Jol had left the band was well recorded and a mostly spot-on performance. Some amazing playing by Emily and Jason, and if you listen to the end you'll hear us go into an abbreviated version of "When Johnny Comes Marching Home."

Starting today at the Main Library, 3rd floor. #sfbythebay (at San Francisco Public Library) https://www.instagram.com/p/B8HJo-ahDo2/?igshid=1nlelvcvn3fnw

bla̅a̅cmäjik

"Repercuss" from the new album on Cubby Control Records by San Francisco synthesizerist blāācmäjik.