Label Feature: Orb Tapes – Sonic Myth-Making
Almost one year in the making, here's our deep dive into the epic catalog of Pennsylvania's DIY experimental label Orb Tapes.
Orb Tapes is an experimental music label based in Central Pennsylvania and founded in 2015. I first discovered the imprint through the Bastard Noise interview we published last summer. Having not done a label feature for some time, I instantly felt the need to dig deeper into the ever-growing Orb Tapes catalog and share some of my personal favorites with you.
To be completely honest with you, putting this piece together took me way longer than I expected. Life gets in the way and whatnot but when it comes down to a label like Orb Tapes, who are absolutely relentless in unearthing and releasing leftfield music from a plethora of genres, that can be a good thing. First of all, most of their releases are demanding of the listener’s full attention and dedication. Secondly, the more time you spend following Orb Tapes, the more releases will appear on their Bandcamp page waiting for you to enter their realms. It’s really hard to stop catching up to the new output and really pinpoint your favorites because there’s so much good stuff to discover. However, this is what I’ll do for you now.
Orb Tapes might have started as a noise label, but currently, in their catalog of over 130 releases, you can find anything from drone, free jazz, noise, grindcore, outsider pop, sound collage, improvisation, and all that lies in between. Catching up on such a huge and diverse catalog is certainly a task that requires a certain level of madness as well as nerdiness—so, what better place than DIY Conspiracy to indulge in both.
Here are my eight favorite Orb Tapes releases since 2015. Those are not in any other order than (almost) chronological. Don’t think I like Shame more than I like Kevin Sims, we don’t rate our music around here.
1 V.A. – Without Chemicals, He Speaks… A Tribute to Twin Peaks (2016)
A three way split (K. Fenrir / Glimlicht / Angellis Taliuu) of Twin Peaks-worshipping raw noise ambient cuts. Those sometimes feel raw or take you somewhere deeper but are always gritty and bleak. One of the earlier releases on Orb Tapes sets the tone for what is to come from the label—music operating on the thin boundaries of the more extreme yet still heavily atmospheric experimental genres. I found it fascinating how homogenous this release sounds, despite the fact it actually showcases the work of three separate artists. I wish I had this on tape.
2 Kevin Sims – Unfinished American Operas (2016)
This one is an absolute Orb Tapes classic, and as with most of my favorite Orb Tapes releases, it’s a tough one to describe. Structured into four interludes and three lengthier pieces, the music on Unfinished American Operas sounds like deconstructed, outsider folk music. Performed on guitars, harmonica, and various percussive instruments with looping vocal passages, choral motifs, and a lot of space and silence in between. It’s absolutely wild!
3 PKWST – IV (2016)
This one has always somehow sounded to me like the stuff we heard on the Kevin Sims albums but as if Sims brought a few more people to the recording session and they all played everything through a wall of amps and distortion. PKWST’s IV is a total massacre of various acoustic instruments, among which one recognises harmonica, various strings, bass, and tons of deformed vocals. I love this one for its raw live sound, I don’t know if it’s an acoustic recording but it sure feels like one.
4 Alexander Adams & Modo Koagon – New Free (2017)
Talking about live and acoustic sound check out New Free by duo Adams & Koagon. Placed somewhere between free jazz, musique concrete, and free improv, it’s a constantly morphing release, which starts as a free jazz record, only to completely fall apart sonically and then have itself rebuilt in a beautiful mass of hybrid sounds. Spasmodic drumming and instrumental outbursts are in a dialog with various electroacoustic interventions and manipulations. I wish I could hear this live.
5 Bubba Crumrine – How Brightly Can You Burn (The Death Of Youth) (2019)
That one got me really confused and the more I listened to it the more confused I became. It starts off as a rather spiritual take on ambient but quickly brings over elements from way more genres you can comprehend for its total length of around 30 minutes. Ritual-sounding vocals, deep synthscapes, hypnotic harsh noise outbursts, it’s all here, perfectly structured and organised, it was perfectly recorded and neatly produced as well. It’s a real sonic journey from an artist I’ll definitely keep an eye on. Also, it’s among my favorite artworks in the Orb Tapes catalog.
6 Shame – I Don’t Like You (2020)
You can’t write about a noise label without featuring a noise release. While Orb Tapes is filled with all kinds of interpretations of the noise genre, one of my absolute favorites from their catalog is Shame’s I Don’t Like You. It’s a soul-crushing record, menacing, meticulously constructed, painful, and extreme. Tracks like “Transmission Dreams (feat. Samuel Goff)” still leave me breathless after playing so much of it already. Shame has been dropping some of the best noise stuff on Orb Tapes.
7 Skeleton Beach – The Inevitable Death of Language (2020)
I can namedrop a ton of artists and bands to describe this one but I’ll just say that this Skeleton Beach tape is here to make drum breaks, glitches, and high BPM melodies great again. A ton of work is certainly poured into this one. Intense drum programming with acoustic percussions also at play, those are soaked in grandiose synth lines and layers of hazy ambiance that is not afraid to get noisy and overwhelming. Pure electroacoustic bliss, very dynamic and constantly going places.
8 Lifegiver – Environments (2021)
Even though this release rocks my least favorite artwork in the catalog of the label, the music is something I’m constantly coming back to. Two tracks of manipulated field recordings, audio collages, and concrete experiments. Especially side A of this tape I can listen to forever. If you thought the winds on Lawrence English’s “Viento” were hitting hard just check out Lifegiver’s “Duvet”, pure and beautiful audio cold.
