Label Profile: 2018 YEAR IN REVIEW [MIXTAPE], 'FEATURE LENGTH' EPISODES 1-2 & 2000's PASSAGE EP's Comp. (Illuminated Paths)
Joshua Rogers (@pathilluminated) otherwise known as Broken Machine Films Presents... has been creating and banking samples since 2002. He's created over 30 albums utilizing only vintage equipment and medium and practicing the art of cassette-to-cassette manipulation. Broken Machine Films Presents... was recently featured on Memories Overloaded: A Tribute to The Caretaker, Godless America Mixtape Vol. 4, Gorgeous Lights' Latenight, and Bedroom Cassette Masters 1980-89 Volume Nine. Rogers himself attests his "creations have been most associated with like going to a late 70's lo-fi drive-in Grindhouse B-movie double-feature with your main squeeze; putting the listening device on your [car] door and continuing on with your date. Not paying so much attention to what is transpiring on the screen anymore... you have more pressing matters to attend to." Broken Machine Films Presents... first music video creation was, actually, for Dntel AKA Jimmy Tamborello's 2002 single, "(This Is) The Dream of Evan & Chan" featuring Death Cab for Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard, who would, later, re-emerge together as The Postal Service.
I've been corresponding and emailing back-and-forth with Josh Rogers AKA "kind mr. rogers" since about July 2017, after I randomly purchased a cassette copy of PASSAGE's ULTIMATE 'WORKED ON' BUNDLE! from Illuminated Paths (IP). Just since the original March 31, 2017 release of PASSAGE's Worked On, Illuminated Paths have, somehow, recorded and released a staggering 191 physical/digital projects. As a matter of fact, just so far in 2019, IP have already issued 10 projects! I speak with Josh Rogers just about every week and Illuminated Paths quietly issues, at least, one release per week and I'll readily admit, it's a never-ending almost humanly unmanageable body of releases; so, for the sake of sheer time and readers' attention span, we simply intended to cover a few recent IP stand-out releases within this very post: 2018 YEAR IN REVIEW [MIXTAPE], 'FEATURE LENGTH' EPISODE 1, its counterpart, 'FEATURE LENGTH' EPISODE 2, and PASSAGE's decision master, the holy phony haunt, tennis, piano and other primary sightings.
First and foremost, Illuminated Paths & Broken Machine Films Presents... 2018 YEAR IN REVIEW [MIXTAPE], their second official release of 2019 after BYSON's Failed Experiments with Mood, fittingly consists of "Not the best of IP 2018. Not the worst of IP 2018." Across four "sides" of digital "tape," Josh Rogers has painstakingly assembled a nearly 2 hour-long mix containing "an exciting sampling from the over 100 albums Illuminated Paths has bestowed upon the masses over the last year alone." It features selections from the likes of Data Slum, Kurt Rambus, Ugliest Man, The Triangle Theory, Charred Logic, nostalgic depression, BYSON, VIPER, FAKE MUSIC 4 FAKE PEOPLE, Death By Love, Will Brooks, and countless others. 'FEATURE LENGTH' EPISODE 1 boasts a similar M.O. to 2018 YEAR IN REVIEW [MIXTAPE], featuring a collection of singles, B-sides, demos, and unreleased tracks from the vaults of NOOB SAIBOT, GutterBoy+SKANK, ENVIRON 案件, and Broken Machine Films Presents... EPISODE 1 was hand-curated and mixed utilizing only cassette-to-cassette and cassette/vinyl/VHS sampling and layering/manipulation by Joshua Rogers.
'FEATURE LENGTH' EPISODE 2 is merely an extension of EPISODE 1 with a similar cast of characters and a few special add-ons this go'round. Broken Machine Films Presents... has included a couple very special remixes within this 21-track compilation: his remix of Andy Cooper's "The Perfect Definition" AKA "The Not-So-Perfect Definition" from the layered effect and a remix contest submission for Doomtree affiliates SHREDDERS' "Nia Long" AKA "Nia Looonger." "The Not-So-Perfect Definition" was, of course, featured within The Witzard's Andy Cooper "THE PERFECT DEFINITION" Remix Comp. Soundcloud Playlist from last year. It's pretty wild that something I helped foster, create, and curate has now been pressed onto a limited edition cassette?!!!??! decision master, the holy phony haunt, tennis, piano and other primary sightings is a "lost" album from anticon. alumni PASSAGE consisting of choice cuts from three EP's originally released from the mid-late 2000's: Decision Master (20??) | The Holy Phony Haunt (2005) | Tennis + Piano + Other Primary Sightings (2004) EP's. All of the aforementioned releases are currently available in a multitude of formats and packages directly from Illuminated Paths' Bandcamp page. I've recently heard rumblings about Height Keech doing new re-mixes and re-masters of both VIPER & Broken Machine Films Presents... 'BOUT THA MONEY and NOOB SAIBOT's long-rumored I-II (plus, III-IV!) coming soon to Illuminated Paths, as well.
