I saw these tapes described as a collection of “ powerful, diverse, female contributions by artists producing interdisciplinary work in the fields of audio and visual composition” and smashed the “add to cart” button. I took a chance; going in with no expectations since I’d never heard of any of the artists but my blind leap was well rewarded. The A-side of the Gambletron tape is an injection of caffeine straight into a main artery: a sludge of processed beats and static riffs that could easily go on 15 minutes longer than it does. The B-side is minimal rhythm and cricket samples mixed into a constant low-level radio hum and you wonder how this is even the same artist. NaEE RoBErts’ tape is all unsteady vocals over bright, catchy, but damaged melodies and it perfectly scratched the itch of something I had been looking for but didn’t even know I wanted. Wren Turco’s tape (who is also the artist who assembled the collection) is a perfect capstone, reflecting both the rhythms and abstractions of the previous tapes into a spacious, fuzzed-out, candy-machinery that I will be returning to often. I will now, of course, be religiously hunting for more material from each of these projects.
More about: Gambletron, NaEE RoBErts, Wren Turco
