Cuneiform Tabs is the Bay Area-UK project of Matt Bleyle and Sterling Mackinnon, two indie scene long haulers whose self-titled debut album, a terrifically bent excursion into the land of lo-fi that’s spiked with uprisings of subterranean pop, was built the old-fashioned way; by trading tapes through the mail. Released on LP this past February in a tiny edition that sold out quickly, the lack necessitated Superior Viaduct subsidiary W.25TH to bring out a fresh pressing that’s due out August 9.
Matt Bleyle and Sterling Mackinnon have been in numerous bands prior to the formation of Cuneiform Tabs. Bleyle was in Abi Yoyos, Sopors, Rat Columns, Caged Animal, and Beatniks, while Mackinnon was in Broken Nobles, Holy Ghost Revival, and The False Berries. Most important is that Bleyle and Mackinnon played together up close in Violent Change; the name teases hardcore but the sound is indie rock, rough-edged and loose. With the duo spread out, Cuneiform Tabs takes a turn for the strange.
Opener “Healthy Reaction” is riff-laden but hazy and with the vocals pushed way back. Around mid-way through, there’s a jump cut into a loose drifting slow motion swirl, and then a fade out. “Penitence My Lord” begins as a slightly cleaner (but still substantially hissy) acoustic affair with addled echoey vocals and a ren faire folky vibe that’s fleetingly similar to a non-sexed-up version of first album Frogs.
“Gonged Fantasy” starts out with a mingled loop that’s suggestive of audio captured from the space ship in John Carpenter’s Dark Star, but then shifts into a lazy-day sunshiny psych-pop number with a judiciously applied sprinkling of crackle and glitchy fuzz. “I Think I Need You Tonight” is next, rising up with a song in progress and then dissipating just as quickly, only to reemerge as if the tape has been rapidly rewound and the volume turned up on an AM radio that’s wafting out a forgotten nugget of ’60s love ache.
Looped, layered, and nicely gnarled-up, “VCUKII” conjures up an increasingly rhythmic churn that loiters on the outskirts of mid-’80s lo-fi industrial at its least dancefloor inclined, and with a hint of dark folk ambiance in the mix. For most of its duration, “Might You Have Something to Eat” features a machinelike clang twinned with a roiling plod-throb and hovering keyboards.
“Space Crone” is a doe of guitar strum so gorgeous it would glisten if it wasn’t enveloped in a humid atmosphere that includes the momentary reverberations of what sounds like a robotic bird. “Yesterday Is Nexus” sports a large and loping guitar line and an off-kilter feel that blends ‘60s pop, ’80s DIY, and droopy-lidded ’90s lo-fi. And “Planted Boy” connects like it could’ve sprang to life on the ’90s indie rock fringe, as does the journey through the psychedelic mist that is “Wet Look Raga.”
“Not Another Priest” closes the album with an oration that resonates like it could’ve been snagged from a VHS recording of a late night public access television program, but no; it was instead spoken by a friend of the duo as the music surrounding the speech hits like a home recorder with a hard-on for early ’90s Angelo Badalamenti.
With this LP, Cuneiform Tags hit a few sweet spots of wondrous audio dishevelment. Here’s hoping they can keep it up.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
A-
