Prison Art Tapes, a small label out of Brooklyn that deals exclusively in cassette tapes (all of which are labeled and packaged by hand), have just dropped their second release. The album, Taking Trips, comes by way of Montreal-based "post-punk-experimental" rock-and-roll trio Each Other.
Plugging into Taking Trips feels like a genuine and necessary trip backwards. Not in a "visiting-hometwon-and-seeing-highschool-friends" way – more like going to a lake house without your smartphone/iPad/MacBook/iPod/Xbox/Segway/Roku. There's rusty distortion on the not-so-clean guitar riffs and the melodies are intentional, without being robotic. The lyrics sound like they're being sung from memory while shaker-eggs and tambourines are audible in the background. This feels like rock and roll on an existential level.
Prison Art's tapes present an intriguing departure from the high-tech do-it-yourselfishness that these tweeter-crazy days have been defined by. And while the delivery could be written off as pretentious hipster-irony (hipstirony), it helps that Eachother's music is good. The whole thing feels like a dedication to a craft, rather than trendy indulgence. You can find the album Taking Trips here, and buy it on cassette from Prison Art for $5. Each Other have also released a 7-inch called "Traces to Nowhere / Sit Still" with another Brooklyn based label, Crikey, that specializes in limited production vinyl.
