A collection of half baked electronically tinged alt-folk tracks. The culmination of months locked away from the world during the 2021 pandemic. Details over on our Bandcamp. https://cowtonguetacorecords.bandcamp.com/album/ep-1
We have a new release from ease and desist. Featuring Maya Miko on vocals, this veers away from their first chilled out synth based EP, and careers headfirst into full on trap/hip-hop.
A digital only release, find your copy on our Bandcamp below, or on Spotify.
It’s been a while since we put out something on tape, and today we’re pleased to announce that we are breaking that drought with the first EP from NEKOZE PAJAMAS – fuzzy dream pop from Japan.
Forged from the fires of Tokyo’s indie music scene, NEKOZE PAJAMAS infuse a 90s alternative sound with whimsical ふわふわ overtones; faint echoes of bands such as Deerhoof, the Smashing Pumpkins, and Joy Division just about audible through the reverb soaked guitars.
Bass / Vocals : Mizuki
Guitar : Keita
Drum (supported) : Peshi Kun
Music & lyrics written by Mizuki
Music arrangement by NEKOZE PAJAMAS
Recorded at Void)))Lab in Tokyo, Japan in September 2020
Album Art by Mizuki
You can stream or download the EP from our Bandcamp, or pick up one of the colourful tapes for a modest sum of £4.
A Christmas cracker from Glaswegian grunge-lords Closet Organ.
Stream/buy from Bandcamp for now. Available on Spotify from the 16th of December.
As the coronavirus ravages the planet, it seems like a great time to release a new digital-only double-A side from Closet Organ.
Bambi Riot / Ginger Blonde Bombshell is a reimagining of two of the best tracks from the band’s 2016 debut album – recorded in their Glasgow studio pre-lockdown. Available from our Bandcamp shop for whatever change you have left following the collapse of the global economy.
We’ve finally set up a dedicated YouTube channel for Cow Tongue Taco artists. Sling us a subscribe and do the necessary.
To mark the occasion, we’ve released a brand new video from ease and desist – ‘she a boss’. Check it below.
‘Fuck the Home Office’ is a two fingered salute to one of the most odious, despicable government departments the UK has ever seen. Their appalling treatment of the most vulnerable people under the ‘hostile environment’ policy is executed in a deliberately vindictive and cripplingly incompetent manner – with zero interest or concern for those caught up in the purposefully obtuse and ever changing set of contradictory rules and regulations. Seemingly accountable to nobody, they gleefully brandish their vast powers to bring misery to peoples lives – splitting up families, locking up children, and conducting dawn raids.
Fuck them.
The digital only single is available now from the Cow Tongue Taco Records Bandcamp. If you pay over a fiver, you’ll get this fetching ‘Wicked Witch of Westminster’ soft enamel pin badge included:
Following on from our last post, we now have a limited number of copies of the self-titled Hog Wild EP on GOLD* cassette tape. There’s only 5 available, so grab one over on the shop while you can.
* not real gold
Today we have a brand new release from Hog Wild. The self-titled EP has five tracks which were recorded by the duo from home in about a week, and have a real scuzzy energy about them. Think electronic tinged grunge pop and you’re not too far off.
You can find the full EP for free only on our Bandcamp at cowtonguetaco.com. There may or may not be a tape to come later.
Photos by Lee Jones. Artwork by the fantastic Ghostvoices / Jake Brown.
Today we have another new release – ‘Spectronica’, from an artist that is brand new to the label – Tufty.
Spectronica is a 1-bit ZX Beeper album, written for and recorded from both vintage and modern ZX Spectrum hardware. It is both rare and unique, and for that reason, we’re especially pleased to add this to our roster. Some more info:
Harnessing the rich harmonics of 1-bit lo-fi and exploring synth, digital, speech synthesis, triangle waves, phaser and minimalistic square wave beeps.
No dedicated sound chip was used to produce the basic tracks just clever, modern 1-bit sound engines developed by ZX Spectrum coder/musicians Shiru and Irrlicht Project.
- Tracks 2,4 & 14 have Vocoder speech overdubbed, performed and recorded by Tufty.
- Tracks 1,2,4-8,10-14 recorded from 48K Rubber keyed ZX Spectrum.
- Track 3 recorded from a 128K+2A ZX Spectrum.
- Track 9 recorded from a ZX Spectrum Vega+
- Track 15 recorded from a ZX Spectrum OMNI 128K HQ.
Mostly written as competition entries in the Beeper category for Battle Of The Bits, DiHalt and the 1-bit Forum music contests. 2015-2018
We chatted a bit to Tufty to discuss the release:
Cow Tongue Taco Records: Hello! Tell us a bit about yourself. Who you are, where you’re from, and all that jazz.
Tufty: Hi, My name is Richard and I first used a ZX Spectrum in the mid 1980s to write music. I then moved onto the Atari ST where I produced digital music for the Manchester based demo group Chaos. I used the handle ‘Tufty’ in the demo scene (a school nickname) and it’s just stuck. My passions are chipmusic, synth pop and 1970s analog synth. All genres I try to include in my lo-fi music.
CTT: For those that aren’t familiar, how would you explain the 1bit music scene – and how did you get involved with it?
Tufty: 1-bit music is the simplest form of music, being just an ‘on’ or ‘off’ signal sent to a speaker. Music in this way was written for early PC games like Monkey Island (before PCs had sound cards) and the original ZX Spectrum 48K. I became interested in ZX Spectrum 1-bit ‘Beeper’ music again when I came across whole albums published by Polish musician Mister Beep in 2013, such as ‘A Thousand Furious Bees’. Since 2006 new 1-bit sound engines have started to be developed for the ZX Spectrum becoming increasingly complex and allowing multi-channel, multi-timbral and even digital tracks to be coaxed from the old hardware. The ZX Beeper music format is now often included in retro music contests on sites such as Battle Of The Bits and demo parties such as DiHalt.
CTT: This album was recorded solely using a ZX Spectrum, which I’m sure many won’t even realise is possible. Can you give a bit more info on the process, and the tracks themselves?
Tufty: I write the ZX Spectrum music on a PC using utilities such as Beepola, 1-tracker and Bintracker. I then load the sound files into a real vintage ZX Spectrum, play the music back and record the output from the mic socket of the Spectrum into a PC. The sound recordings are then EQ’d and volume equalised but kept as authentic as possible.
CTT: Why did you want to go with a cassette release?
Tufty: I just liked the idea of a retro cassette release, having seen the others produced by Cow Tongue Taco Records. It’s vintage, cool and just seems right for lo-fi chipmusic. Also ZX Spectrum owners like to collect cassette releases and I hoped they’d find this very unique release interesting and authentic.
CTT: Where else can we find you online?
Tufty: I have a bandcamp site tufty1.bandcamp.com where my other music releases can be found and a new site which I’m currently working on spectronica.org.
The album is available digitally for £2, or £5 for a limited edition cassette tape – which has an alluring blood red case and all black screw-type shell. It looks pretty damn good if we do say so ourselves. Get your copy from our Bandcamp, or hold out until 22nd of December when it will be on Spotify.
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