The Trilogy Tapes Vinyl & CDs

Review: Playing the guessing game is becoming increasingly regular with regards to releases on The Trilogy Tapes; like Levantis, Rezzett and Ondo Fudd before them, Chemotex arrive on Will Bankhead's label with a foggy sense of mystery that's hard to unravel. Although we may never know whether the producer will turn out to be the moniker for someone more notorious or just another example of Will Bankhead's canny A&R, TTT releases are rarely about the name on the label, and more about the head turning nature of the music itself. Still though, Bankhead appears to have stumbled upon perhaps the most corrosive TTT material yet, with "Schrade Knives" every bit as sharp as the name suggests and comparable to Container having a particularly bad day. However, it's edged out by "Payphone Player", which is pretty much a noise techno version of the ringtone from hell. As you'd expect, it's not for the faint of heart.

Review: It's pretty difficult to define most of the releases on Trilogy Tapes, which is only a good thing. This is certainly true of Maremoto, and the work of Francesco Pastaldi (Jean-Louis, Fantazio) and Olivier Demeaux (Heimat, Accident du travail) as Ciccio & 2MO. As wildly avant garde but compellingly listenable as you could hope for, it's been said they straddle a gap between psyche and industrial, but we say there's way more going on than just that. Their 2023 epic is certainly proof of this. There's something sinister and brooding yet instantly engaging and inviting about what's here, it's experimental yet instant when things need to be, highly complex but not in a way that distracts from the joy of tracks that range from a twisted kind of Bond-theme to wonderfully open classic live breaks, cacophonies of percussion and strange, strained stabs.

Review: CS + Kreem have a hard job on their hands to follow up the magnificent Snoopy but they do it admirably with Orange. This is another intriguing album on The Trilogy Tapes that pairs suspenseful emptiness with fresh instrumental interjections, creepy spoken words with atmospheric found sounds to make for an album that is part sound collage, part experimental rhythms and part ambient storytelling. Acoustic guitars, nervy cellos, tentative xylophones, woozy flutes and lazy drum sounds all colour the airwaves in this most deep, compelling and pensive of records.

Review: Given that he's been delivering DIY releases as Kitchen Cynics since the late 1980s, it can be to know where to start with Alan Davidson's vast back catalogue. Happily, the Trilogy Tapes has come up with a solution: Beads Upon an Abacus, a career retrospective compiled by Jack Murphy that offers an excellent introduction to the Aberdeen-based artist's distinctive work. It's well worth checking, too, because Davidson's trademark style -a lo-fi and hissing blend of rudimentary electronics, hazy folk revivalism, layered guitar-scapes and oddly traditional instrument choices - is never less than invigorating, alluring and hugely entertaining. If you've yet to bathe in his unique musical explorations, don't sleep on this fine compilation.

Review: Nuke Watch made a big debut on this label back in 2021 and since dropped live snapshots on the likes of NYPD Records and WEEDING but now return with new full-length World's Gone M.A.D.. The ensemble features Chris Hontos and Aaron Anderson and between them, they explore modal jazz infused with dub undercurrents and plenty of rhythmic and electronic invention. Spoken words and warped folk guitar lines, plucked strings and ritualistic dances, whirring machines and drifting sax notes all make this a record that is alive with detail and brilliantly beguiling.

Review: It's been a busy year so far for London duo Rezzett as they follow up their second album Meant Like This, and a recent live album, with this wild new EP joyously titled 'Boshly'. And bosh we will... The title track gets super-loopy with a chant and a cat-like twang that licks your brain up and down. Elsewhere 'Dots' gives 1992 a call but reloops the call through a whole wave of textures and beguiling twists while 'Kermit' recalls the early Total Science or Krome and Time records but with woozy rosey glasses. 'Extra Redundant' flips for a more delicate, cosmic farewell. Bish, bash, 'Boshly'.

Review: Lukid & Tapes combine their scuzzy sounds once more as Rezzett for this new and sonically fucked up outing on The Trilogy tapes. It's lo-fi music full of perfect imperfections and dusty sound sources, cruddy rhythms and distant cosmic noise that sounds both as if dug up from under many layers of ancient soil but also somehow sent back from the future. It is now a decade since this pair made their first outing but their sound remains fascinatingly original. For loose genre references, imagine breakbeat hardcore, 90s jungle, granular Detroit techno and raw Chicago house all chucked into a blender.

Review: ***B-STOCK: Sleeve damaged but otherwise in excellent condition***


Lukid & Tapes combine their scuzzy sounds once more as Rezzett for this new and sonically fucked up outing on The Trilogy tapes. It's lo-fi music full of perfect imperfections and dusty sound sources, cruddy rhythms and distant cosmic noise that sounds both as if dug up from under many layers of ancient soil but also somehow sent back from the future. It is now a decade since this pair made their first outing but their sound remains fascinatingly original. For loose genre references, imagine breakbeat hardcore, 90s jungle, granular Detroit techno and raw Chicago house all chucked into a blender.