America Reads "The Yellow Wallpaper" 1-sided recycled cassette (Total Recall)

Not much information is out there on them danged internets about this ambient project, America Reads. In fact, I didn't really find word one surrounding this droner or his recycled tape "The Yellow Wallpaper", which clocks in at a one-sided total of 24 minutes. All I have to go on is a name (R. Lloyd Mason - sounds like a wealthy industrialist of some kind) and the steady spew of quivering, bubbled synth purr that is offered.

This tape comes in true DIY fashion, meaning screened artwork on thick paper, and what appears to be a hand painted tape who's original persona was that of an instructional relaxation/meditation journey. One of the sides was left intact and I actually gave the soft spoken guide a chance to sooth me out... Worked pretty nicely, but the proposed assuagement was that of Mason's tonal massage. What was described in a letter that accompanied this cassette as "the sounds of one serious insomniac's late-night voyages w/ modular synth and tape loops..." turned out to be a good representation of just that. The sweeping of sound starts off persistent and sedated, only being disrupted by scoffs of crackled noise here and there. Mason brings you into an anodyne state during the first leg of this cassette, holding down the fort with dense, rich slugs of drone and fluid tones. It all had me wondering how this dude wasn't getting any rest time in, but then things started to change up just slightly. While the atmosphere of torpid crush still wound through the room, rhythmic clunking of drafty loops and disordered pulses eventually work their way in. The adjustment didn't sit well with me, and shuffled everything into a mess. A moderate mess, but still a mood-altering end to the jam. I really enjoyed the slow synthsations of America Reads, but attempts of fucking with that aura just didn't jive.

A nice tape, but in the end, a lack of focus did it in. Still an interesting and honest late-night jam. I wouldn't turn down a listen-to from America Reads in the future. 35 copies were made and interested parties should contact rlloydmason@gmail.com. (MAH)