Video: Bardo Songs in Dharamshala

Mutable Sound of the Month

We here at Mutable have been venturing into the Far East and its vicinity for some time, and this most recent addition to our library of auditory delights comes from one of these forays. To Dharamshala and Cafe 129 where Mutable regular Gabriel Boyer was performing songs from various unreleased albums, and one or two you may have heard before but never like this. In this most intimate of concerts, at a venue perched high in the Himalayas and coming directly from the monastery he has been calling home for more than a year, Mr. Boyer sings songs of heartache in the Vietnam jungle and songs steeped in a wistfulness he wrote while living with the Tibetan monks of Northern India. Enjoy!

Mutable Sound is pleased to present a unique musical experience every month or so by ourselves or someone we’ve been introduced to. These are from the reel-to-reels and tascams of the garages and basements of the world. If you have a track you would like us to hear, please feel free to send it on to mail@mutablesound.com along with credits and a brief description.

Video: Kenny Rogers Rock Opera

Mutable Sound of the Month

We here at Mutable asked you to send us your reel-to-reels and taskams of the garages of the basements of the world and the video below captures the most epic of these sorts of DIY moments, the end of the infamous Kenny Rogers rock opera and Saginaw in the bad old days when Green Anarchy was alive and well in the bosom of the Pacific Northwest. For a moment, this was a place where experimental film thrived in the larger primitive skills atmosphere, during the first few hesitent years of the new millennium. This moment captures the spirit of an era, and we here at Mutable cannot seem to stop watching it. It was a moment when the youth had this naive belief that they could change the future, maybe even save the planet. If only they’d been right.

Mutable Sound is pleased to present a unique musical experience every month or so by ourselves or someone we’ve been introduced to. These are from the reel-to-reels and tascams of the garages and basements of the world. If you have a track you would like us to hear, please feel free to send it on to mail@mutablesound.com along with credits and a brief description.

Town Meeting: Big Ol' Road

Mutable Sound of the Month

The new single out this month from Town Meeting starts big. The vocals are large, looming, and upbeat, and it goes from there. But what starts out almost church-y quickly turns weird and then heavy, with down home chops reminiscent of musical legends as Canned Heat. This is a song that begins brightly and then dives into its winding interior, psychedelic, punchy, instant classic material. It presents a cheery face but this is a face that hides secrets and marinates in gems. Enjoy!

Mutable Sound is pleased to present a unique musical experience every month or so by ourselves or someone we’ve been introduced to. These are from the reel-to-reels and tascams of the garages and basements of the world. If you have a track you would like us to hear, please feel free to send it on to mail@mutablesound.com along with credits and a brief description.

Sallo: Otoño

Mutable Sound of the Month

Stumbled upon this album from Shelly Strunk and instantly fell in love. It has been compared to Satie and Tchaikovsky with a touch of Wendy Carlos, but what a clear voice is heard in all of this—-that transcends influence. When this music works, it works like magic. Shelly Strunk, the voice behind Sallo, deserves to be noticed. Enjoy!

Mutable Sound is pleased to present a unique musical experience every month or so by ourselves or someone we’ve been introduced to. These are from the reel-to-reels and tascams of the garages and basements of the world. If you have a track you would like us to hear, please feel free to send it on to mail@mutablesound.com along with credits and a brief description.

Darius Jones: Figure No. 2

Mutable Sound of the Month

For this month, we have chosen the first track off Raw Demoon Alchemy by Darius Jones. Something like a Coltrane minimalism, this song features a single melodic phrase repeated by a single saxophonist for the full close to ten minutes of listening time, but each time, with a different nuance of intonation and expression. It is a track with a raw primacy, like a Raga endlessly introducing itself or if the blues-born traditions of America approached the mystical purity of certain types of Persian classical music. The repeating phrase can vary ever so slightly from one telling to the next. An altogether enchanting experience. Give it a listen below!

Mutable Sound is pleased to present a unique musical experience every month or so by ourselves or someone we’ve been introduced to. These are from the reel-to-reels and tascams of the garages and basements of the world. If you have a track you would like us to hear, please feel free to send it on to mail@mutablesound.com along with credits and a brief description.

Hesheraunt: Palm Sunday

Mutable Sound of the Month

This month, we have chosen an album that evolved from the minds of E-Kronk and Sifu Tweety, an album that is somewhere between a kind of minimalist techno and the meanderings of Bitches Brew. The tracks are long and unfocused, but with moments of sonic brilliance that can captivate the listener. It is an album that evolved from the aesthetics of the hacker houses of the 90’s and the idealistic early days of Burning Man. This is an album I like to play while I work, not because it helps me concentrate, but because it can on occasion arrest my attention. Give it a listen below!

Mutable Sound is pleased to present a unique musical experience every month or so by ourselves or someone we’ve been introduced to. These are from the reel-to-reels and tascams of the garages and basements of the world. If you have a track you would like us to hear, please feel free to send it on to mail@mutablesound.com along with credits and a brief description.

Neptune: Cave Drawings

Mutable Sound of the Month

This month, we have chosen the re-issued LP, Cave Drawings, from Neptune. The best thing that ever happened to art rock, Neptune featured guitars and other instruments constructed by Jason Sanford, and was a staple of the Boston scene throughout the 90’s and 00’s. This album, originally released in 2013, is just now being re-released through WWAB. Give it a listen and consider purchasing it for Bandcamp Friday, during which time all proceeds go to the artist. And while you’re at it, pick up one of the many fine Mutable products available as well!

Mutable Sound is pleased to present a unique musical experience every month or so by ourselves or someone we’ve been introduced to. These are from the reel-to-reels and tascams of the garages and basements of the world. If you have a track you would like us to hear, please feel free to send it on to mail@mutablesound.com along with credits and a brief description.

Bode Radio: Dusk at Reikai

Mutable Sound of the Month

This month, we have chosen a track off Bode Radio’s most recent album, Onosea. We here at Mutable have been watching Bode Radio’s progression with keen interest over the years. Alex Yoffe, the man behind the music, is deeply involved in Gamelan, and was trained in composition, and Bode Radio emerges from all of these interests. Recorded in Chicago, Boston, and Java between 2015 and 2017. It’s a very dynamic album that takes the listener to many places, sometimes more loping and trancelike and sometimes more frenetic, but always masterfully constructed, with layer upon layer of nuance. Enjoy!

Onosea by Bode Radio, released 13 December 2017 1. Fluttertounged 2. Dance 3. North End of Kyoto 4. Dusk at Reikai 5. Lo Sparks 6. BirchStab//Masquerade 7. Slipping, Sleeping 8. Event Horizon 9. Sphere 10. Lullaby Recorded 2015-2017 Java, Indonesia Boston, MA

Mutable Sound is pleased to present a unique musical experience every month or so by ourselves or someone we’ve been introduced to. These are from the reel-to-reels and tascams of the garages and basements of the world. If you have a track you would like us to hear, please feel free to send it on to mail@mutablesound.com along with credits and a brief description.

Gabriel Boyer & Malcolm Felder: 5. 4. 3. 2. 1.

Mutable Sound of the Month

For this Mutable Sound of the month, Malcolm and I thought we’d present you with a song we recorded one fateful night many years ago. I will never forget my irritation when Malcolm nudged me to come out to the car to record another pop masterpiece. I remember very distinctly thinking to myself, Oh. God. Do we have to record every time we hang out? 

The idea was to record an inappropriate holiday country song using an array of instruments from Malcolm’s stash, like his chinese accordian and autoharp, in Malcolm’s grandfather’s old Chevy Caprice Classic. What we ended up with was a new year’s song about an absentee dad.

Then Malcolm began recording, on a stereo microphone attached to a simple cassette. After each track had been recorded, he would play it back on the car stereo, and we would record over it on a new tape, then put that tape in the car stereo, and record yet again, until our final track was this bizarre blown-out mush. Then Malcolm performed his usual production magic, and voila. Here it is. Another song I love.

Gabriel Chad Boyer

Mutable Sound is pleased to present a unique musical experience every month or so by ourselves or someone we’ve been introduced to. These are from the reel-to-reels and tascams of the garages and basements of the world. If you have a track you would like us to hear, please feel free to send it on to mail@mutablesound.com along with credits and a brief description.

Saba Lou: Novum Ovum

Mutable Sound of the Month

Saba Lou, daughter of the infamous King Khan, released an album not that long ago that caught the attention of us over at Mutable Sound. Garage rock at its finest with lyrics that are pure poetry. The music has a classic sound without being kitschy, and a voice that is equally comfortable crooning, growling, or sliding into a deadpan drawl. Occasionally, the song-writing sounds a little derivative of the 60’s garage rock from which she takes her inspiration—like on the chorus of Dirty Blonde—but at its best it transcends its psychedelic roots to straddle the worlds of Black Mountain with its epic sound and a more pared down singer-songwriter sound. Saba Lou likes to play with extremes in her songwriting in general. She has that kind of elastic voice that can play it either way, and this is also where she shines, sliding from sweetness to gritty and back. It is a captivating, even hypnotic back-and-forth, and expertly rendered on Novum Ovum. “Darling, you are the weather.” Novum Ovum is Saba Lou’s second album, and at 19, she’s primed to explode on the world stage.

Limited pressing on "Bone" colored vinyl Includes unlimited streaming of Novum Ovum via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more. Purchasable with gift card Send as Gift Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Mutable is pleased to present a unique musical experience every month or so by ourselves or someone we’ve been introduced to. These are from the reel-to-reels and tascams of the garages and basements of the world. Send tracks to mail@mutablesound.com along with credits and a brief description.

Video: Sophia Darby

Mutable Sound of the Month

On a quiet summer evening some several months ago, I found myself sitting out on the grass beside a farm in New Hampshire, while on a haybed left parked just by the sheep pen a pair of musicians were in the middle of the most dreamy set of folk-pop. Later, I was to learn the singer-songwriter who stood with her hair perched on top of her head was Sophia Darby. Her voice has a similar lilting confessional style as Cat Power—the same casual almost lullaby quality that I enjoyed so much on early Cat Power masterpieces, such as Moon Pix and Covers—Sophia Darby has the power though to grab your attention and keep it there. I hope you enjoy this other candid video. Someone please produce her album!

Sophia Darby sings two songs at the Gentlemen Callers Spring Jam 2014

Mutable is pleased to present a unique musical experience every month or so by ourselves or someone we’ve been introduced to. These are from the reel-to-reels and tascams of the garages and basements of the world. Send tracks to mail@mutablesound.com along with credits and a brief description.

Egoes War

Mutable Sound of the Month

This Afrofuturist freak-out by Nicole Mitchell from Mandorla Awakening II: Emerging Worlds—available May 5th from Chicago-based FPE Records—blurs the edges between philosophy and mysticism, modern art and radical political critique. Inspired by the brilliant Afrofuturist author Octavia Butler, Nicole Mitchell dares to use science fiction to pose the question, “What would a world look like that is truly egalitarian, with advanced technology that is in tune with nature?” Enjoy!

Nicole Mitchell - Egoes War from the album "Mandorla Awakening II: Emerging Worlds" available from FPE Records May 5, 2017

Mutable is pleased to present a unique musical experience every month or so by ourselves or someone we’ve been introduced to. These are from the reel-to-reels and tascams of the garages and basements of the world. Send tracks to mail@mutablesound.com along with credits and a brief description.

Straightest Lines

Mutable Sound of the Month

We here at Mutable are psyched to share a song from John Bellows’ amazing new album, long EP, out now from Planted Tapes. We’ve been into John Bellows’ work for a long time, but this album really seems like a culmination of his on-going aesthetic. These songs are lushly produced, beautifully written and rendered. Enjoy the track below, and for more awesomeness, watch the video of River’s Deceit here!

Straightest Lines by John Bellows, released 15 January 2016 My foot is in it's not the door it's piss and pouring Flight's decent pressed to the floor its spinal cord tail Drags us down our lips are sealed our gauze is frayed Afraid to stake mistake in maze it's all

Mutable is pleased to present a unique musical experience every month or so by ourselves or someone we’ve been introduced to. These are from the reel-to-reels and tascams of the garages and basements of the world. Send tracks to mail@mutablesound.com along with credits and a brief description.

Avocado Forcefield

Mutable Sound of the Month

We here at Mutable are a little bit in love with this track and the accompanying album. It’s a bit of off-kilter improvised synth-y and drum-driven beauty from the duo Ruben + Monte Cristo. If you’re into what you hear, you can check out the whole album here. But for now, check out the bit of awesomeness below!

Avocado Forcefield by Ruben and Monte Cristo, released 13 February 2007

Mutable is pleased to present a unique musical experience every month or so by ourselves or someone we’ve been introduced to. These are from the reel-to-reels and tascams of the garages and basements of the world. Send tracks to mail@mutablesound.com along with credits and a brief description.

HBD Katharine

Mutable Sound of the Month

Mutable’s posting a little early for Valentine’s Day. This lovely ballad by Mutable’s own Animal Hospital is one of a series of songs Micka has recorded for his one and only Katharine. For more from Animal Hospital you can go here and for Good or Plenty, Streets + Plenty, out now by Mutable, you can go here.

I write and record a birthday song for Katharine every year.

Mutable is pleased to present a unique musical experience every month or so by ourselves or someone we’ve been introduced to. These are from the reel-to-reels and tascams of the garages and basements of the world. Send tracks to mail@mutablesound.com along with credits and a brief description.

Mr. Shadow

Mutable Sound of the Month

Scientists at SONY CSL Research Laboratory have created the first-ever entire songs composed by Artificial Intelligence: Mister Shadow. What was the inspiration behind the writing? We can only wonder. Welcome to the future!

Mutable is pleased to present a unique musical experience every month or so by ourselves or someone we’ve been introduced to. These are from the reel-to-reels and tascams of the garages and basements of the world. Send tracks to mail@mutablesound.com along with credits and a brief description.

Ziggurat!

Mutable Sound of the Month

The first track of Jonah—of Devil Music Ensemble and Debo Band fame—Rapino’s aptly named and under-appreciated album, High, is a ten-minute meditation that revolves around a reading of Ovid’s Metamorphosis. It has the driving power of Crystal Method—although a Crystal Method that has matured to a more Brian Eno level, a more spiritually complete vision of the musical workings of the universe. This is a music built on the foundation of a JRR-Tolkien-level logic and with a serious psychedelic overbite, and it is a powerful piece of music. It stands out on the album and is a current favorite of mine!

released December 1, 2010 Recorded & mixed at Hardcore Studios JP MA by J Rapino - Mastered by B Wood Instruments Casio SK 1 - Yamaha DX 11 - Yamaha CS 15 - MicroKorg Violin - Lapsteel Guitar - Electric Guitar - Acoustic Guitar Oberheim DMX Drum Machine - Vibraphone - Glokenspiel Guest Artists Farhad Ebrahimi playing drums on Ziggurat Rafi Metz reading Ovid's Metamorphoses on Ziggurat Sebastian Paulson playing drums on Cloud Horse All Songs Jonah Rapino Music ASCAP www.massdist.com www.jonahrapino.com MD95

Mutable is pleased to present a unique musical experience every month or so by ourselves or someone we’ve been introduced to. These are from the reel-to-reels and tascams of the garages and basements of the world. Send tracks to mail@mutablesound.com along with credits and a brief description.

I Think I Still Remember

Mutable Sound of the Month

Some time ago we did a shout out for song poems. Song poems as in song lyrics that have been set to music for a fee, although in our case there was no fee. We simply wanted to recreate a similar outsider aesthetic as can be found in such classics as “Do You Know the Difference Between Big Wood and Brush” and “Blind Man’s Penis (Peace and Love)”. 

We got exactly one response from a fellow name of Colin Williamson, and when we did I had completely forgotten about our little post requesting poems to be transformed into song and said, “Well, what do you expect me to do with this? How about sending me some more poems, and then we’ll see.” Only later, did it occur to me that he might have intended his poem to be transformed into a song, and it turned out this was in fact the case. 

Some time ago we did a shout out for song poems. Song poems as in song lyrics that have been set to music for a fee, although in our case there was no fee.

Mutable is pleased to present a unique musical experience every month or so by ourselves or someone we’ve been introduced to. These are from the reel-to-reels and tascams of the garages and basements of the world. Send tracks to mail@mutablesound.com along with credits and a brief description.

Pelog Quarrel

Mutable Sound of the Month

Alex Yoffe looks like someone who grew up on a farm. He also happens to be a composer of the weird and the inexplicable. His compositions are bound by no tradition, from the Far East to experimental electronica. We here at Mutable first discovered Yoffe in a church in Hyde Park.

We were attending a night of gamelan music put on by the Friends of the Gamelan in Chicago, or FROG. Yoffe plays with the group and one of the compositions was his. It was during his composition a certain highly-strung Mutable Sound editor started literally hyperventilating as result of the sheer wall of emotion brought on by the piece. 

Of course most of Yoffe’s compositions are not strictly in the javanese tradition, but do utilize aspects of this genre of musicmaking as well as others, but for our Mutable Sound of the Month, we did choose one of his more Javanese compositions, although don’t be fooled. He also performs his own brand of electronica under the moniker Bode Radio in bars around Chicago. Of course his various projects all bleed together as even a cursory glance will show you.

Written for a full Javanese Gamelan Ensemble in the Pelog tuning system. This is a recording of the premiere performance which took place in Hyde Park, IL at the Hyde Park Union Church from Sounds (headphone friendly), track released June 15, 2012Thanks to Friends of the Gamelan for making this performance and recording possible!

Mutable is pleased to present a unique musical experience every month or so by ourselves or someone we’ve been introduced to. These are from the reel-to-reels and tascams of the garages and basements of the world. Send tracks to mail@mutablesound.com along with credits and a brief description.

The Other Way Around's Sado Okesa

Mutable Sound of the Month

The Other Way Around is a local Chicago underground musical phenomenon comprising Jason Allen, Patrick van Slee, Dan Katayama, and Piotrek Wereszczyński. Among their current repertoire, this song stands out as a truly weird and wonderful thing. It is a cover of a traditional Japanese song. Pat, who knows no Japanese, transcribed the lyrics as best he could, and Dan, who knows a little more Japanese, says it’s fairly accurate. But we here at Mutable are not interested in cultural accuracy, but in psychedelic ridiculosity, and regardless of its truthful rendering of a wonderful folk song, this thing certainly cuts my brainstem a new peephole if you know what I’m saying.

The Other Way Around Sado Okesa, released 23 April 2013

Mutable is pleased to present a unique musical experience every month or so by ourselves or someone we’ve been introduced to. These are from the reel-to-reels and tascams of the garages and basements of the world. Send tracks to mail@mutablesound.com along with credits and a brief description.