Using a battery of hardware sequencers, modified drum machines, cassette players and even MIDI-controlled Nintendos, San Francisco-based duo Marijke Jorritsma and Gregory Zifcak (aka Eats Tapes) have managed the neat trick of straddling both the Bay Area’ dance and trendy art / noise-rock scenes. While 2005’s debut album Sticky Buttons on Tigerbeat6 introduced the duo’s penchant for noisy analogue-heavy techno alongside several collaborations with label boss Kid606, last year’ inspired Remix Party EP saw the controls being handed over to remixers / peers such as Soft Pink Truth, Sutekh and Wobbly.
Hot on the heels of their recent appearance on Tigerbeat6’s Let’s Lazertag Sometime comp, this follow-up album Dos Mutantes shows Eats Tapes in many senses following an “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” approach, with the ten tracks here maintaining the duo’ reputation for making strictly-analogue tracks that clank and rattle with a characteristically deranged edge. There are certainly echoes here of Kid606’s recent rave-revivalist Pretty Girls Make Raves album in the day-glo bleeping synths liberally scattered throughout propulsive tracks such as “No Part Name’ and “Dos’, but while the melodic elements certainly hint at Europe and the UK, the gritty rattling drum machine patterns come across as drawn more from a classic Chicago heritage. “Face Shredder’ lives up to its fearsome name, with howling squeals of synth feedback sliding against retro-sounding analogue bass pads and clattering programmed handclaps in a moment that sounds like it’s been tailor made for a darkened basement full of crazies on nitrous, as all of the electronics edge into the red.
By contrast, “Lemon Drop’ could almost pass for one of the DFA’s typically wandering, analogue-purist outings given a slightly rougher edge, with crisp house snares cutting a path benteath vaguely Moroder-esque analogue synth bass. There’ a hint of howling free-jazz trumpet squall thrown in on the distinctly monged-out happy hardcore of “Band Practice’ (as well as some patience-testing high-pitched bleeps), while perhaps “I’ve Become Cretin’s track title sums up the overall vibe best, with abrupt synth buzzes colliding with sampled fretwork to create a chaotic fusion that sits somewhere between DJ Pierre and Metallica. If you like your techno analogue-heavy and don’t mind getting your face ripped off in the process, Eats Tapes could be the duo for you.
Chris Downton
