Macho Blush is Austin based Gina Probst, a self taught multi-instrumentalist raised around music and inculcated with the natural sense of experimentation that comes from such elaborate solo-orchestration... as well as the peculiar influence of emergent no-wave sensibilities in psychedelia. Probst fuses diverse elements into rugged timbres -- a fitful hypnagogia, reflected in the shifting attitude and orientation of vocals and instrumentation alike.
'Firma' shows Probst at work with a willful, shifting sense of focus, creating a blunt, semi-conscious serialism that colors almost all of her recordings. Her obscured voice is the tape's most static element, though it exists in almost constant transposition with itself, sometimes in sparse decay and at others in the center of diffuse swells of noise. The effect is like exploring a dream full of signs and symbols with only an incomplete, and self-modifying, index to their significance. 'Firma' is music that most closely scrutinizes human origins.
~ Recent and Past Reviews:
"Things become clearer. More abstract and clearer. Clear like blown out, like a traffic flare or a platter of small explosions.
-(island excerpts)" - Tiny Mix Tapes
www.tinymixtapes.com/chocolate-grinder/listen-macho-blush-firma
"There’s a tiny shack outside Austin, Texas that can make the ill Unsick. Drawing from the light of her sturdy lantern, anti-folk noise-wave sha(wo)man Gina Probst gets Macho Blush on those incurable people through a variety of sounds that is nothing short of broken brilliance. Collaged and messed within the cycle of “what is music?” in honor of the Unsick, she has recorded some of these healing sessions and put it out on Crash Symbols. Within nine miracles, she hones in flecks of acoustic clash, warped chanting, and mixing alchemy to create some jarring internal care that all at once creates an uneasy of pure relaxation… Progressing sound is the name of the game, and not only is Gina Probst on that via holistic listening…” - Tiny Mix Tapes
www.tinymixtapes.com/chocolate-grinder/listen-macho-blush-unsick
“Gina’s experiments with layering tracks to choice piano flourishes and demented percussion turn snide mantras like “sweat-shop/slave-ship” into ingrowths of politics and nihilism of form. It’s not total cut-up, as the substance is of a consistency and human speed…” - Animal Psi
"expect cymbal crashing, floor toms, demonic chanting and a shitload of distortion. In the 70's, Jimmy Page spent years shooting smack and making a soundtrack for Kenneth Anger that ended up sounding like Macho Blush's recorded music." - The Austin Cut
"what the fuck?! this might be one of the craziest/coolest tapes (‘Under Weight’) i've received thus far. this tape is absolutely awesome - exactly what i've been wanting to hear for a long time now… the music is completely unique and totally bizarre. to describe it accurately is tricky but its something along the lines of fragmented/collaged demented free jazz piano with no-wave drumming and chopped and screwed singing… i can't say i've heard anything this intriguing in a while." Cassette Gods
cassettegods.blogspot.com/2013/03/macho-blush-under-weight-self-released.html
"Macho Blush. Another artist whose live sound collage performances border on transcendental. Warm, dark, shifting and hellish (in a necessary, redemptive sort of way)."
"In a world where most adults are less musical than all children, a deep awareness of music can be very isolating. This is what that sounds like." -Sonic Review
"This music is an antidote for massive depression."
released July 1, 2015