Reptilian Taxonomy

CD/Digital Preorder: https://lizardlabel.bandcamp.com/album/wav-fuzz-sensing

Lizard Label proudly presents their inaugural release: a slab of aqueous technoid excursions and hi-def electro workouts from Chicago-based producer Wav Fuzz. The head lizards first heard these tracks performed as a live set at an intimate gathering in the woods and immediately knew it needed a broader audience. With Sensing, the artist hones in on a lush strain of dance music thematically oriented around human sensory awareness, matching detailed compositions with each of the senses. The album follows previous releases on labels including Les Yeux Orange, Bed of Roses, Occult Research, and the artist's own imprint EYMS.

“Vision” kicks off Sensing with a wave-jumping journey through layered synth pads and chiming mallet leads, all girded by drum programming that bumps over sturdy kicks and clattering hi-hats. Wav Fuzz lets the central elements of each track loop listeners into a trance state while frosting the outer layers of the stereo spread with warm pads and rushes of pure texture. “Audition” — as in hearing, not trying out for the part — leans into throbbing bass bursts planted beneath a web of interlaced saw waves, while “Olfaction” heads off on a major key trip that splits the difference between a Mediterranean yacht party and a space cruiser docking against the backdrop of Saturn.

Throughout Sensing, Wav Fuzz demonstrates a fine-tuned sense of melody without lapsing out of the state of drift. Fine-grain synth patches share space with complex beat patterns and evolve together through subtle shifts in narrative — all while remaining in that club-ready sweet spot, with basslines that could only sound massive on a proper sound system. “Gustation” skirts the closest here to what could be called IDM, with thirty-second note patterns jittering behind alternating atonal and consonant synth phrases, creating a sinuous ebb and flow, equal parts tension and ecstasy.

“Somatosensation” places Wav Fuzz’s hands on the keyboard, dripping out a stream of balearic arpeggios and luxuriant chords — that is, before that bassline kicks in, underpinning the proceedings with a feeling of constant forward motion. Knowing exactly when to deploy each new element without overcrowding the mix, the artist coasts with us through a network of kicks and bleeps, filter sweeps and looped one-bar melodies. Wav Fuzz adds another sense to the traditional five: “Intuition.” The album closer starts in a state of wide open bliss, with synthetic bongos and shakers backing a steady kick snare groove, before complicating with the introduction of growling bass and intensifying synth ornamentation.

Wav Fuzz prefers to maintain a sense of anonymity around the project, which suits the liquid nature of the music. The compositions that Sensing offers reach us as finely sculpted sessions that feel like they could extend far beyond their allotted time, swirling through their varied permutations while maintaining their central groove, their core idea. As a durational medium, we listen to music and we know that it will end at some point. We find ourselves within the space of one track, already preparing ourselves for the next. We watch for the signs on the side of the road that might lead us to some new vista. Sensing balances that expectation with pockets of perfect stasis — moments we would be fine looping along with unto infinity.

Words: Max Allison

Produced by Andrew Bisenius
Mastering by Jason Letkiewicz
Artwork by Alyssa Beers

Sensing

[PREVIEW] Wav Fuzz - Sensing (lizlab001)

OPEN HAND REAL FLAMES is a monthly show presented by Bass Clef. Each episode has a theme - usually a specific musical instrument or process, perhaps an artist or composer, sometimes a record label. Ranging wide over centuries and genres, looking for connections and joy. Always welcomes contributions, music, suggestions. For old Floating World Music shows click [here](https://www.nts.live/shows/floatingworldmusic)

https://www.nts.live/shows/open-hand-real-flames/episodes/open-hand-real-flames-5th-july-2023

Open Hand Real Flames w/ LIZARD LABEL 040723

CD/Digital Preorder: https://lizardlabel.bandcamp.com/album/slug-beat

Appearing out of a chef’s kiss of delirium, Sug’s “Slug Beat” comes as the 2nd release on Chicago’s newly minted arbiters of the weird — LIZARD LABEL! Following their first release of Wav Fuzz’s “Sensing,” they return with another slab of Prairie State psychedelia & explorations into further unknowns. Placing it in tandem with “Sensing,” the music of “Slug Beat” was written to soundtrack an annual meeting of the minds & spirit deep in the wide open expanses of the middle west, manifesting as an artifact of exhilaration & freedom — evoking ripples of summer heat, the tickle of grass against skin, the maneuverability of a calming wind, & ultimately the arcane delight of walls of sound heard loud as hell with other freaks.

Enthralling and unique, “Slug Beat” manifests a vast metaphysical canvas for our wandering minds, indulging the mystic ability of machines to transform loneliness into something shareable and real — to paint a portrait of the possible, transporting oneself beyond their surroundings & doing away with linearity, choosing instead to bask in each moment no matter how beautiful or horrifying.

Sug set out to craft “Slug Beat” as if he was conducting a one-man rave band ensemble, melting down a spectrum of influences into something poignant and direct, yet irreverent & indeterminate — connecting the dots between sampladelic relic freakouts, fusion jazz multi-part suites, and the marrow of the human spirit. The aim here isn’t to create “tracks” so much as to build and collapse worlds, an anemone ecosystem sustained through atomic friction and magnetic polarities folding unto itself.

The engulfing chasm of the cathartic opener “(This One’s for the Lovers) In the House” greets us with effulgent layers and omnidirectional dynamism before we’re awash in cascading breaks, swells of dissonance, and minor key flourishes in an interlocking tango of agony & ecstacy. Maneuvering through further peaks and valleys, we’re greeted with the celestial cooldown of “Pleasure Center” — through its sunkissed strums of guitar and desert vagabond disposition, one can’t help but feel a communion with the Earth beneath our feet and the water hiding behind the needles of cacti, red clay and solar glow paving the road ahead.

Fresh as morning dew comes the titular “Slug Beat”, another lover’s anthem on cruise control, an evocative mist floating above shrouded bramble, all photosynthetic mechanics moving within primordial bass rumbles — threatening to wholly consume all in its path, until it begins reminding us to relax, have some fun, and let the Pineal gland do some stretching.

Harmoniously obtuse cadences course through the DNA of all of Slug Beat’s rhythmatic movements, layered with guitar strums on the deserted outskirts of the mind & morphed into ballads for being stoned alone — all transmitted to the listener through a hazy memory collage playback reel ensnared between action, reaction, & dissolvable mechanics.

Tugging at the proverbial heartstrings, “Sensory Leakage” packs up its belongings & turns to face the coming wind — staying present amidst looming apocalypse & leading into the buoyant Chicago-style jack of “Devil Dust,” all midwest-inflected levity and the enrapturing cadence of chimes, simultaneously welcoming and warning us to the winds of change. Teetering on the edge of whimsy & dread, “Truth or Consequences” concludes on a deviously ambiguous note — the fate of our protagonist uncertain, the sound of binary opposition somewhere between the emotional ends of electronic discord and lovewave synth warble oscillations. Truly, the void is staring back, but oneness and even a possibility of redemption and acceptance are but an arms length away. 

Produced by Michael Sugarman
Mastering by Jason Letkiewicz
Artwork & Design by Alyssa Beers
Words by Shayna C.

[PREVIEW] Sug - Slug Beat (lizlab002)

Farplane "Four Rites Of Transmutation" mixtape for Seith Communiti
Side A
Recorded June 23, 2020

Christoph de Babalon - Alpenglühen (Bandcamp self-released)
Drew McDowall x Hiro Kone - Barely Awake (BANK NYC)
Tomorrow The Rain Will Fall Upwards - Reverberasia (Blackest Ever Black)
Minos - They’re Here (Don’t Be Afraid)
DJ Earl - Static (Bandcamp self-released)
Aki Onda - Seoul (Recital)
Gaël Segalen - Ascension (Erratum)

Fear pt. I

Farplane "Four Rites Of Transmutation" mixtape for Seith Communiti
Side B
Recorded June 23, 2020

Sa Pa - Fireworks (Mana)
Machine Woman - Very Kind Human Being  (Peder Mannerfelt Produktion)
Svaag - Sade (Semantica)
Pharmakustik - Propulsion 4 (V I S)
I.B.M. - Crash Palace (Mathematics)
Terrence Dixon - Where A Function of Some Systematically Changing Variables Is Calculated A (reduction)
Iesope Drift - Vamasi (Seico Corp)
400ppm - Bølling Oscillation (Avian)

Fear pt. II

Farplane "Four Rites Of Transmutation" mixtape for Seith Communiti
Side C
Recorded June 23, 2020

Lone Flanger - On (The Shoals of Consciousness) (Infinite Refractions)
LXV - L.K. Breaking (Anòmia)
Les Graciés - The Entry Dance (Firecracker)
Pamela_ & her sons - dancing in the blue light (Embalming Lately)
Ahnnu - Passing through a horizontal slit (NNA Tapes)
BFTT - 75623372 2 (Leftovers)
Harae Nagoshi - clnp2-02 (Bandcamp self-released)
Shuttle 358 - Broom (12k)
Klein - mark / understand our tracks (Bandcamp self-released)

Love pt. I

“No Way Back is a very meaningful event to us and we were humbled at the chance to be a part of it. Playing virtually, it was most important to us to keep the feeling of being in Tangent Gallery in mind. NWB conjures a deeply contemplative mindset that we tried to channel. The quintessential experience for us is leaving our bodies through sound in the Outer Space room — given the controls temporarily, we played with us lying on that floor in mind.” 
— Farplane (sold & Hi-Vis)

video: https://youtu.be/vs6qo1dtDL8

Susumu Yokota - The Art of Contemplation (Lo Recordings)
Robert Turman - F-berg (Cejero/Actual)
Xth Réflexion - 10 (Aught/Chained Library)
Christoph De Babalon - Opium (Digital Hardcore Recordings)
Xth Réflexion - 08 (Aught/Chained Library)
Echium - Adaptive Senses (Sferic)
Vladislav Delay - Six (Detroit Underground)
Low Flung - Oud Clay (Time Dub) (Bandcamp self-released)
Boreal Massif - Weather in August (Pessimist Productions)
Bookworms - nguished (full version) (Bandcamp self-released)
LXV - Tunneling (Bandcamp self-released)
Mura Oka - Log In Oct 13 (Latency)
Best Available Technology - Spectra (Slumdiscs)
Dots - Dense (Ambient Abstract/AtomTM_Audio_Archive)
Mosam Howieson - Spiral 7 (Further Records)
Chaperone - Zen Hangover 1 (Always Human Tapes)
Seraphim Rytm - Andromeda 3 (Bandcamp self-released)
Experimental Audio Research - All Things Being Equal (Dekorder)
Shuttle358 - field (12k)
Aleksi Perälä - Level 12_060 (Colundi)
Emeralds - Planetarium II (Tapeworm Tapes/Bandcamp remastered)
Rrose - Undergrowth (Eaux)
Sendai - Apopads (Editions Mego)
Jon Hassell - Picnic (Ndeya)
Jake Muir - Silent Sailing (Sferic)
Steve Roach - The Future Flows From Here (Projekt)
juneunit - ntr (Jacktone)
Yugen Disciple - First Sighting (YOUTH)
Forest Management - Ripple Effect (Boudoir)
Bellows - E128 Untitled 1 (Entr'acte) 
Donato Dozzy - 12H.12 (Presto!?)

Interdimensional Transmissions Podcast

IT.podcast.s09e09: Farplane at No Way Back Streaming From Beyond 2020

We want to be the vessel for facilitating the warmth of sound created by artists we love, for the listener to be held by the sound in the moments they are present.

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