Z Tapes' 2022.
Thank you for supporting our artists and our label. We love you, happy new year.
- Angie & Filip
All proceeds will go towards funding future releases.
Cover photo by Angie
Jan 2, 2023
Dec 31, 2022
Dec 28, 2022
best of 2022 • Air Waves • The Dance
As its name suggests, The Dance refuses to stand still. Instead, it spins, flips, and sidesteps through different moods. Stand out track “Wait” is a synthy and addictive beast that will beg to be put on repeat. Titular “The Dance” is a nostalgic romp that evokes the stuttering, violent emotions of slow-dancing at a sepia-toned prom. Closing track “Peer Peer” is an ambient, stilted ditty that ends the album on a pleasant question mark. Schneit‘s throaty, melancholic vocals— which have become a calling card for Air Waves—provides the glue to these different textures. The Dance feels like a blurry night out, complete with romance, mystery, and good music. The ebbs and flows, good times and uncomfortable moments, and abrupt endings—That’s what life is about, packed up and presented through this record. highclouds
best of 2022 • Fortunato Durutti Marinetti • Feels Like
What I’ve learned over the last several years of making records is that the recordings benefit from inviting other people in. I’ve recorded several albums basically entirely by myself and I can’t imagine doing that again. Memory’s Fool is the record where I consciously embraced opening up the process and deliberately left space for other peoples’ contributions and presence. It’s the first record where I didn’t feel like I had to predetermine every aspect of the recordings, which is how I operated previously. Now I don’t want to know exactly how it’s going to turn out. The other thing is that inviting contributors allows for a different palette of instruments that I can’t play, like strings and horns. The recordings I’m working on right now for the next record lean even further into this zone and it feels really good. foxy
Dec 24, 2022
Quiet Arrows • Heart of Winter • 2022
A cozy winter love song that sounds like a warm fire and feels like home. Lushly layered harmonies float over fingerpicked acoustic guitar, dreamy harmonica, intimate ethereal synths, and thick molasses tones of upright bass. "Cold night oh the stars are stunning, we warm by the fire like honey, these moments must mean something…"
Dec 23, 2022
Low • Just Like Christmas • 2010
On our way from Stockholm
Started to snow
And you said it was like Christmas
But you were wrong
It wasn't like Christmas at all
By the time we got to Oslo
Snow was gone
And we got lost
The beds were small
But we felt so young
It was just like Christmas...
It was just like Christmas... 🎅
Dec 21, 2022
best of 2022 • Heavy Gus • Stock the cupboards out for winter...
Stock the cupboards out for winter, we've got months til new things start to grow
Dec 15, 2022
best of 2022 • Friendship • Love the Stranger
James Champion There are certain albums that make very specific time periods in my seem to glow a little extra in my memory. this summer I’m sure every little thing I do while listening to this album will have that special memorable glow that I’ll look back on in years future with extra human fondness.
best of 2022 • Whistle Peak • Endless Spaces
the space between organic and synthetic, acoustic and electronic.
Dec 11, 2022
Dec 7, 2022
best of 2022 • Kevin Morby • Bittersweet, TN (feat. Erin Rae)
“‘Bittersweet, TN’ is a love song dedicated to time,” explains Morby. “It is about the abundance and scarcity around it that I feel almost always – that there is either a daunting amount or not enough but regardless – time is always on my mind. I tell this love story to the backdrop of America, or rather a Bittersweet, Tennessee – which like time itself can be a very beautiful or very tragic thing, depending, and one may not exist without the other. I sing it with my great friend – the very talented Erin Rae who really helped bring this song to life. There is a moment towards the end of the song where we have a cheers ‘to time,’ and I am so honored to be having those cheers with Erin in some sonic landscape for the rest of time.”
Devoted my life to the passin' of time
Crossed over county to the Missouri line
And how does one sail on the waves of time?
Hey there sailor, can I hitch a ride?
There was a time when you were mine
Oh, there was a time when you were mine
There was a time when you were mine
Oh, there was a time
Well, have one on me, bittersweet
Tennessee
Bittersweet
Tennessee
Goddamn you got old, you got upset you got sick
The livin' took forever, but the dyin' went quick
And oh, just to think you were a little kid
Wonderin' what you'd be when you got big
And there was no time, suddenly
Oh, there was no time, suddenly
There was no time, suddenly
Oh, there was no time
Well, have one on me, bittersweet
best of 2022 • Jaguar Sun • With You
With Jaguar Sun’s latest album “All We’ve Ever Known” he digs into the aftermath of his debut album “This Empty Town” exploring the process of accepting where you’re at in life, looking at your past, and moving on from mistakes or moments that have caused pain. The album is a bittersweet but hopeful look into the future and everything that tomorrow can be.
Dec 5, 2022
best of 2022 • Big Thief • Red Moon
There is a jubilance to these performances, even a joyousness. A wailing fiddle, played by guest member Mat Davidson (aka Twain), loosens up the country stomp of “Red Moon” and the gorgeous, blue-eyed harmonies of “Dried Roses.”
Red moon rising like a fire in me
So many questions, she asks them all to me
I have to answer most curiously
Scarlet angel, I am too small to see
Earn earn, shuffle round the big city
Burning the rubber down, crossing the hot concrete
I'm gonna leave town, there is someone to meet
She turns her head around a full 360
Woo
Bedroom rising from an old growth tree
Bringing out the sawmill, cutting the 12 inch beams
Building a pattern, the reservoir to fill with dreams
Rings like Saturn telling their old story
Dec 3, 2022
Felice Brothers • "Jazz on the Autobahn" • (2022 XPoNential Music Festival)
The Felice Brothers perform "Jazz on the Autobahn" at the 2022 XPoNential Music Festival. Recorded live at Wiggins Park on the Camden Waterfront, NJ on September 17th, 2022.
Storefront Church Featuring Phoebe Bridgers • Words • 2022
Sparhawk said of his wife: “Hers was the voice of someone who is just singing, not trying to convince you of something. She was not singing to you. She was not singing to be noticed. Sometimes she didn’t even want to be seen. She just wanted to be.” Obituary
Storefront Church is the project of Los Angeles–based artist Lukas Frank. He released his debut album, As We Pass, last year via Sargent House. In a statement about the Low cover, Frank wrote, “In the wake of Mimi’s passing, I’d like to dedicate this to her. Low’s music has been incredibly useful to me; it’s like an antidote to anxiety, with Mimi’s voice at the heart of it—relieving, cathartic, and honest.” PF
Dec 2, 2022
best of 2022 • Hurray for the Riff Raff • SAGA
Before Alynda Segarra (she/they), who records under the moniker Hurray for the Riff Raff, went into the studio to record the mostly excellent Life on Earth, their eighth album, they had decided on a new plan of action. Instead of trying to save the world, they would try to save themselves.
Take it
They always want you to take it
Just close your eyes, baby, fake it
Burning inside-out
Shaking
Screaming hysterical, I get
Lost in an ocean of regret
Burning inside-out
Cold feet
I was a kid, I was lonely
Would've done anything only
To be by his side
I can't speak
I get to feel in my heartbeat
It's been a terrible news week
And I don't know how
Oh, I don't know how
But I, I don't want this to be
The saga of my life
The saga of my life
The saga of my, I
I just wanna be free
Get over it in time
Push it out of my mind
Cold feet
I was a kid, I was lonely
He pushed me down on the concrete
Oh, I can't speak
I get to feel in my heartbeat
I'll just make it through this week
And I'll get out alive
But I don't know how
Oh, I don't know how
And I, I don't want this to be
The saga of my life
The saga of my life
The saga of my, I
I just wanna be free
Get over it in time
Push it out of my mind
Nobody believed me
Nobody believed me
Nobody believed me
Nobody believed me
Oh, nobody believed me
Nobody believed
Oh, nobody believed me
Nobody believed me
best of 2022 • Courtney Barnett - Sunfair Sundown
“Sunfair Showdown” show Barnett’s strengths: riffs and toplines married to a wryness as chronic as a scowl.
Oh, what a day, and congrats on the keys to your place
You've escaped the rat race, as they say
Now you're settling in for the stay anyway
You got a blank slate to renovate
Take it all
Yeah, you reap what you sow and so it goes
What you put in the ground comes around
When you don't really know what you're missing at all
In a daze, I can picture you whittling away
With such care, with such patience and grace
And I smile when you say that you'll build me a table one day
Well, I'd be so grateful
Sometimes it's hard, getting lost, you say is a fine art
Put the map down and follow the stars
Shall we leave? Are you sure?
Let me grab my bag, we can sneak out through the side door
In the dark, are you scared?
Did you hear those dogs bark?
And do you ever wonder what sets you apart?
Shine the torch on the path, darling, please don't let go of my arm
When you sleep, are you warm? Can you feel my cold feet?
Are you good? Are you making ends meet?
At the end of the day, you're awake with your thoughts
And I don't want you to be alone
And I don't want you to be alone
Yeah, I don't want you to be alone
And I don't want you to be alone
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