Time Life - Open to Both Sides (Abandon Ship Records CS)

Cruising right ahead here with another tape that's long overdue, this time out from Time Life on the always interesting Abandon Ship label. Time Life is a unit who I'm actually surprised hasn't gotten any press from here yet, as they've been doing some pretty interesting stuff for a while... though I suppose there's a zillion units doing interesting stuff now who haven't gotten covered here yet so hey, scratch this one of the list. The duo of Heidi Diehl (of Vanishing Voice and Nautilus, who I hear just dropped a killer one on Night People) and G. Lucas Crane of personal favorite Nonhorse (who, oddly enough, also hasn't received coverage here...), Time Life has always fostered an odd and ulra-compelling sound.

This tape, recorded live in Amsterdam of all places (making for especially murky proceedings, no doubt), opens with a strange driftwood drone and odd garbling synth moves that are hauntingly brittle. Hardly sounds like a duo at all, as these two are so closely in tune with one another that they can move with spacious care, dabbling about each other as they slosh in and out of sonic events, one moment clinging to a decaying texture, the next grabbing hold of a high sparkle and riding it into the sun. Quite beautiful and the sound is great, so you really get all of the details and intricacies of the interaction.

Yet still, no matter how many details present, the name of the game with these guys is space and time, and both are perfectly comfortable setting up some loop and letting the other wade about in it. Tape moves enter and dissolve while whale calls carry outward, always easy, always listened to, and always mobile. Small moans and little keyboard organ lines, clicks and clacks, its all a very strange little realm far afield from tangible occurrences. Yet its all quite pretty in its obscurity. Like an ultra-slowed down and beatless Skaters almost, only they never trek toward Mayan ruins. More like traversing the Mayan calendar I'd say. Beautiful, and limited to 150 which means still likely quite available.