Neal Retke submitted a few albums to me for review, and I chose this one.

The opening tracks, "Signed, Epstein's Mother Part 1 and 2" are somehow percussive without the use of actual percussion or any drumming. There are no electronic drums either, as far as I can tell, but it has a percussive quality to it. Like when playing an electronic piano percussively. There is more than one instrument on this but they all work as a percussive electric piano in my ears. Quite an interesting feel to these two tracks. Even the vocals have a drum-like quality to them without becoming rap-vocals, which often happens in this scenario.

These are followed "Alas! The Great Horned Owl Shirked And Doddering Under Ripening Clouds", a spoken word track, which reminds me of something from Walls of Genius tapes of the 80's but in a way, not at all. A modernized version of these yelling-pieces by WOG perhaps? I don't know how else to describe it. I love it though!
"Big Black Goddamn Car" has samples of what sounds like monkeys accompanied by bass guitar arpeggios with a short delay-type effect on them. Then what sounds like vinyl record noise is introduced to give it an analog feel, and short synthesized keystrokes build up into...silence! The track is over, go home please!

"Mother Of Drugs I: The Hissing": the hissing has a lot of ambient pad synths and drums and strings coming in once in a while and cutting out again seemingly at random, but sometimes it sounds like they're played backwards for just a split second before re-introducing the pad synth. 
Then "Mother Of Drugs II: The Line" starts with reading of a poem that could have been created with Burroughs' famous cutup technique. A single low key on an upright piano (either MIDI or actual) repeats through the song in the background while sounds are being played backwards in the periphery of the soundscape, until it eventually builds up into the repeating vocal mantra ”The Line” being spoken in a loop fading into...

"Mother Of Drugs III: The Doom Prophet What Is Known As Skippy"
This sounds almost like Gregorian chants and backwards turntable scratches with echoes on them delaying for a while, then a muted guitar through a delay pedal being plucked without any chords being played.

"Hallway Of Glass" starts out with breathing sounds that has been tuned to a keyboard through a sampler (at least that is what it sounds like to my ears). After a few seconds heavily reverberated reversed sounds enter to make a swirling effect almost like an old-fashioned Leslie for an organ. The breathing sounds are percussive in the same way that I heard on the first two tracks of this album. Not worrying as much about the tonality but more the percussiveness of it. I could zone out on this for hours, but unfortunately this track is only 8 minutes and 20 seconds long.

The title track starts out with scrambled voice samples ending in what sounds like "What's up?", then a low almost growling voice accompanies some high pitched notes singing lyrics, which I can't make out but they sound divine. Then the high pitched voice starts emulating a muted trumpet and saying "yes" once in a while, and then the whole symphony of voices (probably the voice of the same person) goes on to a grand finale in the next approximately 8 minutes to invoke all the spirits of the dead in the room and make sure you have nightmares for weeks. The reverberated echoes make this even more potent. I wouldn't recommend listening to this one if you're in a psychotic state; it might convince you to kill the hippy king.

The final track "Bigger Blacker Goddamnerer Car" has a lot of panning going on. It has a woman's voice saying "Big Black Goddamn Car" in different earphones; then a man's voice enters in the middle repeating these words out of sync with her creating what sounds like she is doing the delay effect. A guitar is to be heard in the distance but only a snippet of it , and it sounds like it is pitched onto a keyboard. All in all this sounds like something I'd love to do a cassette release of on Stilletid. I noticed it is 45 minutes long so I sense a split cassette is in order! Neal! Get back to me on that.

4 and a half stars out of 4 and a half stars!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In his post from January 22nd Ditlev requested that Ec participants send items for review.

I started a writing exercise lately, which is basically this: think of a person who inspires me in any way, then write whatever comes to mind. I prepared a few of these for future posts, but today it’s about Indre, who has a weird Lithuanian last name that I can’t spell correctly, so I am not going to try.

For Indre

My friend Indre from Canada, that I had an email-based band with once called Ace Ventura Overdrive, and also tried to produce a pilot for a TV show with (OctagonTV ended up too weird to really be seen by anyone though), is a very talented artist. She draws, paints, writes, and even has a singing voice that will make you cry. Even when she makes up little songs out of thin air like “Socks really Suck” or “Get out of the strip club”, these little simple ditties run around my brain for many years. Unfortunately for the world, Indre isn’t very known beyond the confines of Toronto, but I am proud to know her and call her my friend. Often times I have had weird Skype convos with her about Martians, seafood, love, language and art. The video below is based on a conversation we had about behind-the-scenes documentaries ending up ridicilous and spoiling the magic of the finished movie:

I feel a special kinship to Indre, because we’re both pretty much loners. It’s rare that someone gets my weird jokes, but most of the time Indre does. I bet all of the readers of this post feels a kinship like this to at least one person in their lives, and in this digital age I think the internet really can bring us together instead of tear us apart, if we connect with the right people.

The photo for this post is based on another strange conversation, this time about body fluids. How human drool might actually be the same as extra-terrestrial semen, and maybe they don’t reproduce like we do through the genitals, but instead through the mouths, and vomit their young into the world. While we were talking about this she drew me circa 2016 drooling into green alien men’s mouths...yeah. 

Figure from ground — figure from ground
Game of life label
​Review

Claude Alduos sent me some review material!!!!

Interestingly, all tracks on this release were recorded live. Whether that means with an audience, or live in the studio I am not aware, but it most definitely sounds live. Whatever that means. The opening riff to "April 1 no. 4" sounds like an effected guitar but could just as well be a synth. What instrument it is doesn't matter as much as what it sounds like. To me it sounds like a high-pitched upright bass, that insists on not playing the bass role in the song. Synths enter one by one to remind me it is probably a synthetic bass sound too, and continues to drone on until the end, adding layers and layers until it echoes out in what sounds almost like a human voice. i'd like to know what synths they used for this, it most definitely doesn't sound synthetic. "April 7 no. 1" and "April no. 4" are more ambient pieces with metallic springlike sounds and LFO's. It sounds much older than it is. I read on the Bandcamp page these are 2019 New Yorkers, but could just as easily be Berliners from 1978. It has a krautrock feel to me. Especially bringing Faust to mind. At first glance I think they achieved this by using old Moog synths and the like, but as they say most of it is in the fingers, and they might just as well be using analog ribbon synths from last year. The way it is balanced in the headphones is quite interesting. Just when I start to expect the next move, it changes and does something weird in the left earphone, which travels to the right. "January 20 no.2" starts off with what sounds like field recordings of industrial machines, but soon breaks up with sounds of raindrops. At least it sounds to me like raindrops onto a manhole. There's something very large about this piece. Large like a big city, not large like a symphony. The use of reverb and delay almost turning into feedback is very interesting, and just before it breaks into the noise territory it is interrupted by a bass frequency like a kick drum. The same goes for the last piece, "January 27 no.2" which sounds like a rainy day in the country, and I think this is a good piece to go out on. All in all this is a great ambient album you can listen to while having dinner, or while having illegal drugs. Which is a very rare quality in an album. I think only Vivaldi's Four Seasons has that same quality.

Hey Electronic cottageers!

​It’s been a while since i posted, mostly because i had nothing new to bring to the table for a while. So now i got an idea. Send me your tapes, cd-r’s or digital release download codes, and i’ll review them!
My address is

Stilletid
Centervejen 15
1.sal, lejl.7
3230 Græsted
Denmark

Or contact me on email
Jensenlasse.lj@gmail.com

In the meantime heres a split between my good ole boy alter ego Wank Hilliams and Bacon Grease out of Orlando , FL, USA!
https://stilletid.bandcamp.com/album/split

listen in streaming audio — 256 kbps mp3
​and download WAV file

This is an open letter to EC
Contact me! 
I lost all my local  friends lately, and i’m just a lonely guy who likes to talk to people once in a while to break up the monotony. Call me and introduce yourselves. Maybe i can interview you? If you have Skype my Skype name is allnameswherealreadytaken (with the typo) if you have whatsapp call me at +4561281589 (international calls are free on whatsapp)
And if you use Instagram add forlaget_stilletid and call me through there! I’d love to talk to all of you! If the timezone prohibits me from answering it is only because i’m asleep!

Fyodor has always been an inspiration to me, ever since i started talking to him in the bygone days of Myspace. Here was a guy who could put to music exactly how i felt as  a scrawny nerd in rural Denmark. He seemed to celebrate his own nerdyness, but without caricaturing it. It was very real to me. And unheard of untill this point. I often tell people "You heard the Ramones, you heard the Residents and DEVO, now it's time to listen to Fyodor". Honestly he has been as big an influence to me as the aforementioned if not an even greater one. He was a realistic Spazz-rocker- Not a jokey and fake one like Weird Al Yankovic. Yankovic was all fine and dandy, and a beacon of light in my drear existence once in a while, but it couldn't be denied all he did was parody popsongs, that the popular kids liked, but in a tone that was almost making fun of geeks. Compared to Fyodor, Al seems to almost mock those people. Unfortunately a lot of people will say he represents them too, but i disagree. It's in a fake way, like the movie "Revenge of the Nerds". The people in that movie were all just jocks, who had successful parents, who could afford to buy them a computer. Most of us aren't like that though, and have regular humble parents who couldn't just buy us a computer.

That is why i wrote this song for Little Fyodor, who put everything i needed to hear into music, and even if it's hard to decipher his lyrics once in a while, with his spazzrock voice and all, you don't really need to.
​All you need to know is:
We're all doomed

17th of October:
​My Aunt Hanna is a fun lady. When I was a child she entertained at my birthday parties. I didn’t need a Ninja Turtle to come. I had an aunt. And she entertained everyone more than any so-called professional could. My Aunt Hanna is FUN. She is retired now, but was a children’s dentist for many years, and those kids looked forward to going to the dentist, because she was there. I introduced her to the likes of Daniel Johnston and Jad Fair before and at least got the response “very nice”. All in all my Aunt Hanna is a lovely gentle person, and accepted right away when I asked for an interview about the EC compilation. As I am writing this I can’t predict what she will say in the actual interview, but I guarantee she wont be mean to anyone. I guess the harshest she will say is “that is not my cup of beer”.

18th of October
I made my way to Aunt Hanna’s house still barely awake from last night’s drunken escapades, but she had the coffee ready. She put the CD on her tiny wall mounted stereo and I told her to say whatever came into her mind during each track. After she had some trouble working her stereo we began.

My Aunt Hanna’s Outside Thoughts
​On The EC Compilation

1. Ditlev Buster — Welcome to the EC compilation

Aunt Hannah:
​Who wrote those lyrics? It’s like a country song but weird.

2. Frank — That’s how I would like to be remembered

Aunt Hannah:
​It sounds like bubbles. Or like a saw. But I didn’t understand the English. Is he talking about after he dies?

3. {AN} EeL — The Quaker's Staff & The Dutch Oven

Aunt Hannah:
​I like this one; it’s like kindergarten kids yelling at each other while imitating Donald Duck. Maybe he has a stomachache.

4. Thomas Park — Rite Cycle

Aunt Hannah:
​It’s the old veteran train! The tracks even make noise and it runs on coal.

5. Juan Angel Italiano — Barrio Tassano

Aunt Hannah:
​I don’t understand the language, but it could be a sheepherder in Greece. We went there last year. The sheep don’t sound happy.

6. Jack Hz — Don's Refrigerator Makes the Best
​Cottage Cheese

Aunt Hannah:
​This is Australian truckdriving music to me! Honking at kangaroos!

7. Shaun Robert — Gregorius

Aunt Hannah:
​Scary! Fits the month of October. Isn’t it Halloween in October over in America?

8. Don Campau — Too Hot For Hands

Aunt Hannah:
A roaring lion? Already? A bit spooky too.

9. Rafael González — Electronic Cottage Theme

Aunt Hannah:
​There’s some native tribe dancing to this somewhere.

10. Walls Of Genius — Escape Of The Madman

Aunt Hannah:
They’re hissing at each other! Like monkeys! Which one of them are fighting a cat?

11. Swami Loopynanda — Twisted In Space

Ditlev: This track I think blew my aunt’s mind a bit, and left her speechless. Until afterwards where she thought of flies that were swatted.

12. John M. Bennett — ILB'AL

​Aunt Hannah:
Kloakka snurres? What’s that? Bleeding eyes? Oh dear. I like it though, not something you hear everyday.

13. Ken Montgomery — Kisses

Aunt Hannah:
​Makes me think of space shuttles. Or maybe an airplane? There’s somebody talking for sure. Reminds me of listening to Radio Luxembourg in the Late Sixties.

14. Eduardo GOZNE — The Great Flood (Genesis 7​.​12)

Aunt Hannah:
There’s so many floods these days. I heard the weather is really bad in France too. This sounds like a tsunami, but there’s a helicopter saving everyone too.

15. Lord Litter — Workshop

Aunt Hannah:
​What’s a drone? When does it start? What class is he teaching?

16. Phillip Klampe — Merlin’s Gesture

Aunt Hannah:
This sounds like a diver meeting one of them bastard whales. (I have no idea why she thought the whale was a bastard)

17. Dylan Houser - Stop​-​Motion Zombie Frycooks on the Moon

Aunt Hannah:
More trains! A circus on train tracks! But why are they whistling? We will never know.

18. osvaldo cibils --
soundart28june2018 - the bombilla distortions

Aunt Hannah:
Cat-stomping rock’n’roll!

19. Chris Phinney — Slap Shot

Aunt Hannah:
Someone’s cutting wood but their time is up! And there’s oil drums. I guess the woodcutter got bored with his saw and started practicing drums on oil cans. I don’t blame him, it’s hard to cut firewood. His wife threw something at him. That’s not nice to do.

20. Jim Barker — Pile Driver Folk Dinner

Aunt Hannah:
​The kids never arrive on time at the restaurant. The adults are talking and upsetting the table. But they’re laughing, that’s nice.

21. Lumen K — A Shaman Prays For Hal McGee

Aunt Hannah:
There’s a monster in that cave but no ceiling lights. It’s like a cafe for monsters. The waiter is a monster too.

22. ​Aimee Grace Naworal — Haint Blue

Aunt Hannah:
Sounds like she is playing a wind chime with chopsticks! One of those on our veranda. (She pointed to it outside to make sure I knew.)

23. Adam Naworal — Suomi (for P. Airaksinen)

Aunt Hannah:
It goes faster and faster, what instrument is this? Reminds me of when we were kids and put rubber bands over a box to make a toy guitar.

24. Seiei Jack — The Fake Project

Aunt Hannah:
This is a video game! Remember when cousin Linda asked me to try her Game Boy and I thought she asked me to try her tooth braces (ganebøjle)? There’s a storm too in this, and a tin roof.

25. ​Jen Sandwich — False Memories

Aunt Hannah:
Sounds like a horse going really fast in the Wild West, to the Batman movie score.

26. ​Shatter Wax — Electro Acoustic Cottage Visitation

Aunt Hannah:
This is an old house that’s falling apart, and they’re getting water from a well outside. Reminds me of when I saw that big fat toad in Allan’s garden.

27. ​John Wiggins — JAN Zoom Samples String (2018)

Aunt Hannah:
Sounds like me trying to figure out the CD player! Maybe his printer isn’t working? But it might be his kitchen door creaking too.

28. ​Dave Fuglewicz — The Near Bygone Days

Aunt Hannah:
This is cars going really fast through Germany. Maybe they’re going to Florence? I’ve been to Italy but it’s been many years. They have lavender fields there.

29. ​Jeff Central — HAL No

Aunt Hannah:
Sounds like street performers! Not the boring pan flute artists, but a different instrument. I think this would attract quite a crowd if it was performed on the street. There is a little girl listening too.

30. ​Francesco Aprile — Zen poem

Aunt Hannah:
Machine guns! He’s shooting so many machine guns that his voice is shaking.

31. ​W​.​A​.​Davison — Broken Radio Loops

Aunt Hannah:
This is a musical greeting card! The battery is low though, and the radio is broken but is also playing. He can’t find Radio Luxembourg, but it ends with town hall bells.

32. ​Hal McGee
​microcassette assemblage for Electronic Cottage

Aunt Hannah:
He’s having a conversation with a Smurf in a space shuttle I think.

33. ​Hal Harmon — Zap​.​.​.​Yer Dead On Arrival

Aunt Hannah:
This is from Star Wars isn’t it? There’s a one-armed bandit too, but it has to be from Star Wars.

34. ​David Nadeau — Cenestopathical Caroussel

Aunt Hannah:
This is like an old mechanical organ, but set to manual, or something. The organist is practicing one part over and over.

Ditlev Buster:
In the end I was very happy with the interview. My Aunt was very open-minded, and actually visualized a lot of imagery from the tracks. I had feared she would dismiss it as just some sound effects, but she didn’t. I hope her description of your track on the compilation amuses you , even if they’re views from someone completely outside the EC community.