Cipher Productions

Debut CD from Tribe Tapes founder MJE, following on the heels of the triple cassette box "Extreme Psychedelia" over shorter-length compositions. A more romantic era of harsh noise.

Remastered from the original DAT and VHS audio sources (2015 - 2021) by Grant Richardson, digipak with collage artwork by Paul van Trigt, layout and design by Max Julian Eastman.

Review by Frans de Waard, Vital Weekly 1356:

"Tribe Tapes is the brainchild of Max Julian Eastman, and he released a few of his musical works on cassette. 'Model Of Malehood' is his first 'real' CD release. The works were remastered from DAT and VHS audio sources and recorded between 2015 and 2021. Eastman calls this a more romantic era of harsh noise', compared to his more psychedelic noise from before (Vital Weekly 1331). On this new CD, he has ten pieces, of which the first and the last are fifteen minutes; the others are much shorter. The noise element is still something Eastman loves to present in his music. The ninth piece ('untitled', of which there are four; the other have titles) is such a fierce noise excursion., consisting of psychedelic layers of crashing noise waves. But in other pieces, he doesn't lean as much on the use of electronics but also works with tape-manipulations, reel-to-reel loops and such, such as in 'When Doves Cry #73'. Eastman uses slowed-down voices in some pieces, which may account for the romantic era. Throughout the music sounds as if it had been recorded in the 80s; a very retro ambient industrial sound, which connects these days to the wave of lo-fi noise makers. There is a delicate balance in this release between those slightly more reflective pieces of music (with 'Untitled (7)' being the quietest moment on this CD and some of the louder, psychedelic textures. One leaps from one to another, creating coherency within the release. I can imagine that too much of one or another would certainly be appreciated by noise heads or ambient spacers, but this combination of both ends worked best for me. I love both ends of the musical spectrum, and they are in a delicate balance."

Tribe Tapes, 2022.