Label: Concentric Circles – none
Format: Vinyl, LP, 45 RPM
Country: US
Released: 2026
Genre: Electronic
Style: Experimental
!!!! Totally UFO from Concentric Circles.. more soon.. (Mint / New)
*USE HEADPHONES*
The most unlikely of estate sale finds, I have absolutely no idea what to tell you about the origins of this tape, simply called “Binaural Prototype 1.” About 10 years ago I was given the green light to rummage through the estate of someone who had been a reviewer for audiophile magazines in the 1980s, fortunately being allowed into the house before the general public ransacked the place. There was an entire massive wall of cassette tapes. Most didn’t look very tempting, but at 25 cents a piece, I wasn’t exactly being picky. The previous owner had been very interested in binaural recording techniques, particularly of the “dummy head” variety, and had a number of tapes that were made to show off the technology and what was possible with it.
Which brings me to the tape in question, currently manifesting itself as a 45RPM 12” here on Concentric Circles. With no name anywhere, the “artwork” was simply a scrap of paper with a bunch of track titles hand scribbled on it. However, from the first second the music starts it’s obvious that this is not your typical DIY affair. Very hi-fi and in your face/head/everything in between, by the end it’s like the musical equivalent of a heavy MDMA trip. Designed specifically for headphone listening, all of the sounds ping pong around the stereo field in an exceptionally detailed manner, disorienting your senses and scrambling your notion of reality. Some things come to mind: Art of Noise at their most obtuse, Monad-era Haruomi Hosono or Robert Ashley and the Lovely Records world, but this really is in a league all its own. A mystery with no answer.
Tracklist
A1 Untitled
A2 Shadows
A3 Riding Free
A4 Pleasures, Grace, Sorrow
A5 Typewriter
A6 She's Blond
A7 And On Sunday Morning
B1 Doors
B2 Naked Ladies
B3 Buzzing Fly
B4 Subliminal Mt. Fresh
B5 Dolphins
B6 New BMW
