smgsap -- Chrysalis Cycles (Stunned no. 9)
shea M. gauer and scott A. peterson are smgsap, and Chrysalis Cycles is their third full length release in nine years as a group. The layered soundscapes here testify to a pair of improvisational artists with ears for excruciating detail - meticulous gatekeepers on the threshold of analog/digital transfer banks. Moans of plate tectonic energies lay a groundwork for the duo to unleash a wide variety of insectile oscillations and zaps of errant particle collisions. By the conclusion of the four cryptic cycles, it's hard not to be convinced that somewhere, maybe right under your nose, a creature has undergone a magical, chemical reconfiguration. Ltd. 69 handnumbered cdrs in heavy cottonpaper pouches with fold-out color insert.

The North Sea -- Submarine Museum c33 (Stunned no. 10)
For lack of a better word: woah. Brad Rose is back at the helm of his ever-welcome, shapeshifting solo guise The North Sea. Submarine Museum is a continuous 33 minute cassette side depicting a sonic mandala riddled with points of desperate beauty and feedbacked death throe. The first two-thirds of the guitar based piece flows from humble pulses into a squall of the vertical blood-quickening sort. But that's precisely where the atmosphere's glowing membrane is pierced, letting through a sharp bodhi light of release and penultimate peace for the final third of the journey. Catch breath. Repeat. Limited to 80 pro-dubbed cassettes with color inserts housed in hand-crocheted cases by Myste French.

Glazed Glitter -- Joy To Be Led (Stunned no. 11)
We here at Stunned appreciate small doses which provide big effects. So when Texas drone dude Landon Odle sent us his Glazed Glitter debut 3", we eagerly boarded this darkened dreamship. In short order, Landon explores a few ways to drop into a lush foetal tone float where pre-cognitive memories blend with more familiar sounds located on the other side of a shimmering aqueous barrier. Plenty of detail is heard, but little is identifiable other than what can be briefly impressed upon in the suspended fantasy goo of Joy To Be Led. Ltd. 50 handnumbered 3" cdrs in full-sized case with exquisite cover art by Maureen Gubia.

Sean McCann -- Sway (Stunned no. 12)
Sean McCann doesn't seem content standing still in the same place for too long. His thankfully consistent tape & cdr reports beam in evidence that for this recent San Francisco transplant, a solo jam is the romper room in which to include all sounds and exclude all rules. Sway presents a distinct turn in Sean's focuses and obsessions of the moment. Tender guitar & synth interplay gives way to epic washes of white and bliss, then rounds the bend to bonked floor-stomp raga, inevitably to run the cycle again in lost languages of electricity. Totally essential McCann. Ltd. 80 handnumbered cdrs in polyvinyl sleeve with some of our favorite Ted Trager art design yet.

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