Mini Profile
lizb on 05/20/2010 at 10:15AM
Tapes & The Polyps
It's no longer a fluke: cassette tapes are back. I cringe with memories of discovering musical favorites melted in the dashboard, warped from too much play, or the sinking sensation associated with hearing that tell-tale cartoonish scrambled noise emitted by magnetic tape upon rapid mechanic unraveling. Not to mention the hiss.
But alas, I'll grudgingly accept this backpedaling in certain cases, especially for bands that are well-suited to the medium. Enter the Polyps, a band from Portland, whose lo-fi buzzy pop sounds are actually complemented by tape hiss.
One member of the Polyps is Raf, who runs the Eggy tape label and tape distribution, and is a member of other tape-friendly bands the Golden Hours, the Woolen Men, and the now-defunct Blood Lemons (along with FMA honcho Jason Sigal!).
The FMA is hosting selections from 5 great Polyps releases, including tracks from their July 2008 tape, "Isla & Elma" (the song "Elsewhere" from this tape is featured below). Also check out a more recent release, "Twenty-Colored Circle;" two spacey, contemplative tracks mix acoustic pop with nature-heavy audio collage.
