THANK GOD. It’s been so dry out here. An effing desolate musical landscape. An auditory drought. . Don’t get me wrong, there’s PLENTY of music being made here in Portland, Oregon but these days, in the wash of mediocre tunes, I find myself less and less attracted to any of the fish in this over-populated sea and turning towards more conventional forms of audio consumption, like NPR. Very recently, however, I got really excited about specific record. This hasn’t happened to me, in all honesty since False Priest. It’s incredible. A total gem. Lads and Gentlewomen: Please listen to Radiation City.

Radiation City hails from Portland’s finest tape-label, Apes Tapes, who have been secretly curating some of the finest unknown tunes festering in this town’s musical underbelly in recent months/years. They sound like a recording that a Viva Voce-inspired Beach House might have made in the late 50s, or to use a more tangible metaphor, they sound like the splatter-crackle of a melting 45 being dripped onto a woebegone widow’s soft stomach while she laughs about something morose.
These show-stoppers just released their first full-length, The Hands That Take You, on a cassette-only basis (Apes Tapes steeze). If you purchase the cassette however it comes with a digital DL, which rules.
Here’s a preview track, but seriously. Buy this record.

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