Purchase the tape our e-shoppe!
To be released on 3/31/15! C57 – Green tape with black imprints. Pro-dubbed chrome + tape. 2-sided 3-panel J-card with artwork from Max Allison (HausMo co-founder).
Limited edition of 75 tapes!!
As co-hosts of the Delaware-based tape podcast Tabs Out, Mike Haley and Dave Doyen have exposed a growing audience to the saga of the international cassette underground, lovingly documenting the releases that continue to stream out of seemingly infinite independent imprints. As Roped Off, the duo’s explorations of modular synthesis and noise improv have culminated in tapes on labels including Tranquility Tapes, Patient Sounds, and Stunned Records – in addition to individual catalogs of solo releases under the names Wether (Haley), Sound Out Light (Doyen), and other monikers. Haley’s own prolific label 905 Tapes has issued material by artists as diverse as Merzbow, Mick Barr, and Helm, while providing a home for Hausu Mountain affiliates like Grasshopper, Quicksails, and Derek Rogers. After a short hiatus, Doyen’s long-running label 2:00 AM Tapes returned in 2014 with new batches of ornate physical editions. With their characteristic generosity and humor (see their parody Tumblr account Noise Park, for example), Haley and Doyen have become vocal advocates and connectors for a population of contemporary artists often overlooked by the mainstream.
Hausu Mountain is pleased as punch to present the duo’s newest free-fall into the synth abyss: Roped Off Is Waiting For Your Challenge!! The tape showcases an unlikely fusion of modern modular synthesis and vintage 8-bit textures, inspired by the visual and sonic aesthetics of the classic Nintendo game Punch Out! Over the course of two side-long live sessions, each stretching past 25 minutes, the duo conjure expanding webs of cavernous synth abstraction flecked with bit-crushed video game samples that sound out over swathes of distortion and reverb. As the sessions ooze and develop, their narratives compound layer by layer into a dense field of alien voices and percolating synth patches all locked together in a competition for the championship belt.
