Window: 10 Years of Lily Tapes & Discs

Gentle, downy, compilation of acoustic folk and dreamy ambient-tinged numbers released to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Lily Tapes and Discs. They’ve put out a ton of finely-crafted releases over the past decade (be sure to check out the library) mostly focused on the sloooowcore, minimal, and grounded end of the acoustic spectrum. Delicate, but with teeth. This double album features really nice, lush, works interspersed with time-specific nature recordings, structured so that the album progresses through the course of a day. Might be nice to take some time in your set to cozy up with a few of these. Bonus points: true to their name, most of the label’s works are released on cassette. Double bonus points: be sure to check track 14 from KZSU’s very own Distant Reader. All songs FCC CLEAN.

DISK 1

1. Morningtime field recording of robins chirping and subtle forest noises
2. Lo-fi acoustic guitar and frail vocals with nice bright piano accompaniment
3. Minute-long fuzzy ambient piece
4. Somewhat messy acoustic guitar, subtle clarinet, and raw-sounding drums
*5. Really creative percussion-forward “toy music.” Chimes galore and blippy keyboard
*6. Slow morphing pipe organ ambient piece with a nice lo-if feel
7. Four-piece alt rock with a slow emo feel
8. Deep resonating ambient piece
9. Acoustic guitar strumming Cocooned in tape hiss. Very short
10. Found sound recording of what sounds like swimming…plenty of splashing and murmured voices/exhalations
*11. Grungy lo-fi rock with buried vocals and spiky guitar
12. Easygoing guitar plucking with lush nature sound effects
13. Warm, syrupy longform ambient piece. Cool, flickering electronica elements appear at the halfway mark. Gradually gets more intense before fading out
*14. Acoustic contemplative slowcore with great narrative lyrics/vocals and swells of percussion
*15. Nostalgic bedroom rock instrumental with field recordings of children playing. Nice shoegaze touches
16. Short lo-fi glitch
17. Nature recording, bird calls, running water, etc.
18. Another nature recording, busy with bird chirps
19. Nicely bouncy acoustic guitar with serene layered vocals
20. Guitar, harmonica lonesome piano, and sounds of children playing in a park
*21. Loungy, jazzy with a fuzzed-out lead guitar
22. Wall-of-fuzz drone. Not too harsh, just nicely crunchy
23. Deep, resonating pulses, swirly elements, kinda sounds backwards
24. Field recording of a rainstorm. Occasional clap of thunder and cars driving
25. Field recording of persistent bird calls

DISK 2

26. Glitchy, sci-fi leftfield electronica. Chopped up vocals, static, metallic pulses
*27. Serene, bliss-out instrumental. New-new-age vaporwave feel
*28. Incredibly lo-fi warbly, rock. Gets chopped and screwed and experimental
29. Cascading fuzzed-out pulses
30. Clanging soundcollage. Tons of neat twinkly elements and blustery warbles. If you’re well-versed in the X genre you will dig this
31. Cozy, slow ambient
32. Night time field recording. Bugs and crickets chirping, blurry murmured voices, gravel crunching underfoot