In the midst of all the exciting labels to have recently emerged from the New York underground, there’s one in particular that should get all your attention. Founded two years ago, Quiet Time Tapes was conceived as “a platform for producers/musicians to help listeners immerse themselves in their sound through an extended format“, sharing the purpose of “putting out music for solitary, meditative listening“, and its first waves of releases have certainly achieved just that.
After opening wide windows into the sonic realms of artists as diverse as Aquarian, Money, Huerco S., Solpara and Phil Struck, the US imprint returns in 2018 with a tetrad of releases courtesy of St. Petersburg’s X.Y.R., Egyptian born, Berlin based artist Kareem Lofty, Montreal-operated project Bas Relief and Providence trio Baby, already responsible for Quiet Time’s second tape. For the occasion we teamed up with Eli to bring you the exclusive download of a pair of cuts lifted from the latter two releases, ‘QTT8‘ and ‘QTT9‘.
First in line – Bas Relief, i.e. the Montreal-based project of David Mitchell from emo act Gulfer and Will Osiecki, deliver a proper soul-healing dreamy pop melter with ‘Cite Your Sources‘ – a track evoking the sleek faux organic sound and vaporous vocals of Baths tinged with downtempo melodic riffs a la Foals and subtle IDM tropes reminiscent of Clark’s most laid-back offerings. Intimate yet inviting, this one serenely surfs the nostalgic crest with the head in the clouds and feet on the ground – connecting ambrosial sky-high spheres via lushly-textured earthly passages.
Meanwhile, Baby‘s 15-minute ambient trip ‘Conservation‘ makes for a serious extended treat, initially draping itself in a gauzy sepulchral veil – it descends into much darker, anxiogenic depths in its first half to better reveal its vibrant polychromatic beauty in the home stretch. Needless to say these come wrapped in the label’s usual double-tape package – one for a friend, and one for yourself – with a special zine designed by the artist included. If you like what you hear, then do yourself a favour and support the artists and label – we need more Quiet Time around.
QTT8 and QTT9 are out now via Quiet Time, order your copy through Bandcamp here and here. Download the tracks via Soundcloud.
TRACKLIST
BAS RELIEF – QTT8
1. A Curt Symbol (ft. Fog Lake)
2. Super Marché
3. Cite Your Sources
4. Treyf (ft. Andrew Bradt)
5. Blue Ray DVD
6. Longing to Belong pt. II (ft. Andrew Bradt)
7. Will Hill
8. Longing to Belong pt. I (ft. Valeda & Naomi Soares)
9. Former Revenge
10. A Word
BABY – QTT9
1. If You Got Something To Say
2. Conservation
3. Cicadas
Discover more about Quiet Time on Inverted Audio.