Stunned no. 15

Masons / Molten Honey — In the Basement of the Temple / Molten Honey c30 (Stunned no. 15) —out of stock—

During the winter of 2005, NY filmmaker Matthew Lessner (Darling Darling; By Modern Measure; The Woods) and his then 14-year old sister Sophie fortuitously gained late-nite access to the basement of their hometown's Masonic Temple. Creeping under dark cloaks and employing the sense of sibling telepathy, the two managed to set up their gear and capture the session of what is now their delirious 2008 debut tape side In the Basement of the Temple. We've enjoyed playing this demo the last few years for any Stunned houseguest wanting the ultimate nutso explosion of graveyard confetti punk. We also can't think of a better bush-era sayonara statement, hence the three year wait on properly unleashing this fifteen-minute flash. Totally freaked out, all manner of esoteric energies pent up behind the boiler room doors of the lodge are channeled furiously thru the duo – Sophie's lacerating clarinet feedback & guitar punctuations bleat in perfect pulse to Matthew's neon war cries and punished drum kit. One would think flipping this tape over might provide some relief from the A-side's secret society onslaught. But that's exactly where John Frank's Molten Honey awaits in a den of sound dementia, hammering his former psych'd folk styles into even more obtuse angles of guitar rattle, contact mic probe & synth key slap. This self titled B-side provides eight vastly different post-2012 snapshots that wiggle their mercurial imagery under our mesmerized gaze. Hand numbered edition of 100 pro dubbed c30 tapes in imprinted hot orange shells & fold-out color j-card.
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review of Masons side:

"Maybe the underground air got to their heads but this is a pretty sour affair, starting with some pounding drums and pierced out guitar licks over the mumbled satanic baritone mutterings of Matthew. Really can't believe his sister's 14 here, as it's a grim affair that is far more aware and weird than anyone I knew when I was 14. Hell, who am I kidding. I don't know anyone this cool at 22... when the drums and lyrics drop out for a second you get some really fried guitar mayhem and punked out glitched nuthouse stuff. Real free form, back to the basics material that's far more radical than anything about 90% of the free primitivist rock guys can muster. Maybe they could do it cause no one was in attendance. Or maybe they just wanted everyone who was there to leave. Every sound here is so fuzzed out and fucked though that it's just cruddy and scuzzed out enough for it to really come together. A killer side." - Ear Conditioned Nightmare

review of Molten Honey side:

"Snippets of lyrics come in and out but mostly its just lobotomized weirdness here--even somehow congeals into the weirdest dance beats you've never heard at points. Big time air-conditioned vibe on the third cut, whose hollowed out sonics really manage to get in the noggin and squirrel about. You even get the sound of the door to your skull opening. And then the vibes come in and you're just totally left in the dust. Tinkly quasi-melodies, sratched out blurts of sound and synth kookiness all amount to some of the most genuinely weird and out there stuff I've heard in a while. Totally together though. Really an awesome split, both sides fit right in with one another, presenting two sides of the same equation." - ECN