Secrete Flatness

Secrete Flatness is the most explicit Tape Lab acknowledgment yet that, somehow, this whole thing has been going for five years. Five years of tapes, demos, weird files, half-finished grooves, dumb jokes that became songs, and songs that probably started as dumb jokes. Beautiful, really. Concerning, also.

This release collects bits, bobs, and early demo pastiche that have been bouncing around the Tape Lab SoundCloud ecosystem for years. Some of this material comes from the old Secrete Flatness file-replacement era, where songs would get swapped out under the same title with no warning. Maybe it was an old favorite. Maybe it was something weird and new. Maybe nobody knew, including us. Not a great system, obviously, so now these versions are static. Progress.

Part I marks the first entry in the ongoing Secrete Flatness series and includes the first Ableton beat created by 2yng2smpl, built with a Beat Repeat FX chain that gives the intro its strange, stuttering texture. It is early Tape Lab in the best way: curious, rough, funny, and already a little too committed to the bit.

The archive gets extra warped with new tape samples from the Nixon Tapes, some AI-generated Patrick Stewart, and, yes, a Christopher McDonald impression. Shooter. Had to be done.

Across tracks like “Seacreature,” “Nice Drive,” “Not Right Then,” “Not Right Now,” “Shooters Tour,” “On That Tape,” “Reputable Luncheon,” “Know More Than,” “Great Earl,” and “Fan Service,” the release plays like a recovered Tape Lab time capsule: short cuts, old instincts, strange transitions, and the sound of a collective figuring itself out in public.

Secrete Flatness is anniversary music for people who know anniversaries should probably include hard drive archaeology.