Composer
Bandcamp has a very fun newish monthly feature called The Tape Label Report “where we introduce you to five cassette-focused labels you should know about and highlight key releases from each.” January 2022 includes Strategic Tape Reserve with a little shout out to Orca, Attack!’s C.M.S.O.
Excellent review of C.M.S.O. is up on Further. Here’s an excerpt:
…these pieces acknowledge the influence of Raymond Scott, beloved inventor of electronic instruments, unlikely jazz band leader and a composer whose distinctive approach leant itself to use in madcap cartoons – in short, the kind of avant garde personality we’re sorely missing in these uptight 2020s. You hear the overhang of Scott’s approach in a sort of playful bounce in these pieces, each of which find itself on an odd frontier between wide-eyed synth experiments and science documentary soundtrack. Both Kelly and Rodriguez contribute vocals, either as spoken-word, instructive lecture-esque monologues, or as angelic harmonies sweeping high above the accompanying electronic backdrops, or as processed, gradually slowed-down, indecipherable non sequiturs.
Read the full review over on the blog, and thank you to Mat for the kind words! C.M.S.O. releases on Friday and there are 4 cassettes left from Strategic Tape Reserve!
Tabs Out named the Strategic Tape Reserve Shopland World tape (which I have a track on) their #2 tape of the year and my Departure 2019 tape their #70! Check out the full list (which also includes music friends Whettman Chelmets, Budokan Boys, Nicholas Langley, moduS ponY, Jordan Reyes, and more) here.
Beautiful review of the Departure 2019 tape on Cassette Gods this weekend:
“Kelly brings her considerable chops as a singer, a songwriter, and a mischievous experimental imp to the table, delighting everybody in earshot with magnificent synthesizers and baroque arrangements, recalling Vangelis and Tangerine Dream and Enya and Björk, but also the sweeping buzz and interjected interruption of our greatest generation of outsider talent.”
Full review over on the site. Thank you, Ryan!
Lovely review and photos (!!!) of the Departure 2019 tape on the Raised by Cassettes blog. “There are a lot of sounds in here all at once- some slip beats and some static which makes it even begin to sound like a swarm of bees- and yet when you hear them all combined, in their formation together, it sounds like magic…”
Thanks Joshua!
Out now! #Departure2019 name your price download or $4 clear cassette with red leader, encased in Flat chipboard “Cassingle” style O-Card with hand-affixed full-color front and back sticker labels . Purchase on Bandcamp while supplies last!
Coming this Friday to Bandcamp, Departure 2019 EP! 3 songs from my January 24 “live” set for Phantom Circuit. Name your price download, or purchase your very own cassette tape!
Elizabeth Joan Kelly 