Tandem Electrics
Big Hearts, Small Rats

signal recorded line-in direct
no mastering

LIVE at Mythed Connection
January 28, 2010 : Brooklyn, NY

hand-stamped fan cd-rs
clear poly slim cases, labeled with clear stickers
edition of 100




A chewy, altogether delish, 16-minute nugget from Kamerman and Reed Evan Rosenberg. As above, things commence with music from elsewhere, her a muted playback of a slow-paced, gospel/funk (?) track that's extremely lulling and lovely (curious to know what it is) that pours out smoothly before, perhaps inevitably, being torn to shreds by moments of feedback that will send spouses and pets filing for orders of separation. The music vaults between extremes for much of the track but there's a ton of detail in the harshness and one never has the sense of gratuitous noise; there's an emergent sense of structure here that I find quite wonderful, something that's appeared on occasion before with this pair, both live and on recording. It's a very cool thing--maybe 2/3 of the way through, the previous 10 minutes suddenly make great sense and the subsequent five or six seem absolutely appropriate. The 16 minutes just hurtles by; I was consistently surprised when the piece ends. Really good work, the best I've heard yet from them.

- Brian Olewnick, Just Outside


Tandem Electrics pairs Richard Kamerman with Reed Evan Rosenberg, the former being CFYR label boss and the latter being the man who assaulted our senses about 12 months ago as one half of Keroaän with a hideously inhuman noise experiment. Big Hearts, Small Rats (COPY FOR YOUR RECORDS CFYRF04) thankfully parks the brutality in the alleyway while conducting its perplexing experiment in electronic sound art, with Lefty and Moe both giving us plenty of face-time with Our Lady of the Mystery Volts. Terms printed on CDR cover such as “line-in direct” and “no mastering” serve to emphasise the ultra-raw Art Brut characteristics of the production of this hot-beef deli snack, so fresh that the steers themselves are talking to you through their horns even while their very necks are wedged into the dining table awaiting the cleaver’s chop. In just 16 and one-half minutes, an eternity of tension and nerve-jangling atmosphere is generated and executed, ruthlessly. Rats!

- Ed Pinsent, The Sound Projector


Tonight a typically oblique little Cdr on the reliably creative Copy for your records label, this one the fourth in their series of “fan” CDrs, which consist of a small 3″ disc encased within a clear plastic 5″ outer disc, which the label then paint in a garish yet somehow quite attractive manner. This one features a live set by Tandem Electrics, the duo of Reed Rosenberg and Richard Kamerman. The disc is entitled Big hearts, small rats and is a recording apparently captured “single recorded line in direct, no mastering” which I think means that a feed was taken directly from the live PA’s mixer and presented here untouched. This is mentioned I think because from the outset a series of seemingly external sounds can be heard throughout the disc, which could be taken as coming from the room in which the music was recorded, but in fact seem to be mixed in as part of the live set itself, by the musicians. I think, anyway, that this is the case.

From the outset, we hear almost three minutes of very murky, compressed recordings of some kind of dance/rap music being played, sounding like it would if your neighbour was holding a party too loud and the sound was coming through heavy brick walls. Nothing else is present besides this, until at that three minute marker a violently loud, viscerally brutal blast of very high pitched electronic feedback wrenches through the speakers. Further layers are added very briefly before the sound dies to a fluttering buzz of static, a further this of feedback and then virtual silence again, pinpricked with little bits of voices, maybe some more distant music, revving car engines and what even sounds like a monkey at one point. This pattern continues throughout the remainder of the sixteen minute long disc, creating the slightly frustrating situation whereby faint murmurs of bits and pieces lead you to turn the volume up and try and hear them clearer, only to dive for the dial again when the next crashing blast of harshness pummels you.

This is one of those CDs that, if you just put it on and try and listen to it in the background, much of the detail in there would get missed and the subtle use of the field recordings behind the more muscular, noisy histrionics would get missed. As it is, this live set makes for a very good, if really quite different CD release. The sense of abandon witnessed in the feedback squalls is underpinned by brooding buzzes and fizz that might suddenly erupt at any moment, and this odd additional layer of voices and other strange stuff. At just sixteen minutes this was either a very short performance or we are just presented with an edit here, but its actually just the right length for the work, so demanding your attention and stamina for just long enough to make a statement, confuse the hell out of avid listeners and then get out before the more difficult sections of the piece become overpowering. The masterstroke here, for me, is the inclusion of the seemingly disembodied additional voices and sounds. Assuming I have judged their appearance here as deliberately added elements correctly, this is a mature work from a highly skilled pair of musicians who would probably hate to be described in such a way. Its also a fun, often quite riveting listen, and one I can recommend, but don’t stray too far from that volume dial.


- Richard Pinnell, The Watchful Ear


A snazzily presented, see-through CD from Copy For Your Records by Tandem Electrics. TE is CFYR’s main man Richard Kamerman and his partner in noise Reed Rosenberg.

Big Hearts, Small Rats begins benignly enough. The muffled, scratched CD sound of rap coming from what seems like several doors away is sporadically drowned out by various unnameable noises closer by. It’s all so quiet, and purposely so; no sooner had I turned the volume up in my headphones than an unbearable blast of microphone feedback shot through my cranium so loudly as to infuriate my wife who was sat across the opposite side of the room. I grinned (or grimaced – it can be a struggle to differentiate between the two on my face) and fumbled for the volume again, this time to turn it down in the knowledge the duo had tried to deafen me on purpose. The piece develops into a collage of sorts, combining an oddly humid netherworld hum with shouts of life on the surface, though it never quite reaches the early levels of screeching brain-wreck again.


- Steve Dewhurst, Foxy Digitalis


The Tandem Electrics CDR is a full size disk with only three inches of ‘silvered’ recording surface. It is “signal recorded line-in direct no mastering” work by Richard Kamerman and Reed Evan Rosenberg. This is difficult to describe sonically, various glitches, violent feedback, loss of signal and mains hums. Sometimes a hint of a recording or radio signal, as if someone either of great ineptitude or drunk or both was setting up a P.A. and rewiring phonos and jacks in real-time whilst the P.A. is set to Max.

- Jliat, Vital Weekly