released October 14, 2017
Radio:
Live on WNYU
wnyu.org/2017-11-07_lastfineday
Live on WFMU "live sonic disruption on the program with a US-tour pitstop at WFMU's studios. Macho Blush is the project of Austin, Texas artist Gina Probst, whose sound alchemy transcends the normal noise and collage zones, creating otherwordly atmospheres broken up and reconstructed before your very ears."
wfmu.org/playlists/shows/75847
spools-out.com/2017/10/26/spools-out-radio-120-healing-artists/
Reviews and Interviews:
"Macho Blush – User Guide (Tymbal Tapes)
I drove 10+ hours today, the final 3 in snow. Tour can be dumb like that sometimes. Decompressing with this tape, which, if I were into ranking stuff, would probably have to call the album of the year or some bull. Gina Probst is a friggin’ genius, and User Guide hits me hardest of all her excellent tapes. Chaotic percussion and effected voice lay the foundation for dense and beautiful compositions that continue to slowly unfold with each listen. The INTENT in this music is so strong! Much of my favorite music evokes that feeling that you are being granted a peek into a person’s inner world, a true and honest, vulnerable and pure place. User Guide takes me there and inspires me to be more honest to and with myself."
ruixzine.com/i-heard-you-missed-us-were-back/
Bandcamp's Hi Bias
Ten Best Cassette Releases of 2017
#1 Macho Blush, User Guide
"The human brain’s natural need to organize means listeners will always try to hear familiar patterns in music, no matter how much the sounds are scrambled. But Macho Blush, aka Austin’s Gina Probst, has figured out how to fully dodge expectation and create her own unique logic. Her seventh release, User Guide, was based partially on her own dreams—and how they “can offer intuitive information through symbolism,” she told us in October—but the results are stranger than any stories generated by the unconscious. Probst’s floating voice, chopped-up sounds, and hard-angled arrangements create a disorienting universe. By the end of User Guide, Macho Blush’s fertile music makes a lot of sense, and the rest of the world suddenly feels off."
-Marc Masters
daily.bandcamp.com/2017/12/20/hi-bias-the-best-cassette-releases-of-2017/
Tabs Out Top 200 Tapes Of 2017
Macho Blush, Moodshow
www.tabsout.com?p=16684
The Attic Magazine
Macho Blush, Firma
the-attic.net/news/1503/bandcamp-pick-of-the-week:-macho-blush-_-firma-.html
“It turns out that Probst based almost all the songs on User Guide on her own vivid dreams. “I just took note and created a form of what I saw or heard in dreamland,” she explains. “The title [User Guide] came about by viewing the collection of songs as some kind of abstract instruction manual offering guidance for personal use. For a second, I thought of Dante’s Virgil as a guide. I thought about how dreams can offer intuitive information through symbolism, if one wants to troubleshoot components of their life with that insight and perspective.””
”“‘Mosaic’ is a piece that came about from pondering personal transitions people go through,” Probst recalls. “I had been thinking of the imaginal cells that bring about the butterfly and its metamorphosis. I began considering how each person’s body of cells could be seen as a single cell that creates a whole, a bigger picture, while each maintaining their full range of human individuality—as in an individual tile of a mosaic.””
- Hi Bias
daily.bandcamp.com/2017/10/31/hi-bias-october-2017/
"An abstract form of music constructed by a honed and unrestrained imagination.
Macho Blush makes my mind wander to the aspect of crazing in pottery. Most consider crazing as a glaze defect where a network of cracks and little lines appear in the glazed surface after firing. In Japan there is a small town called Hagi, where pottery has been made for many centuries. The pottery has come to be called Hagi Yaki and is well loved for its beautiful porous and crazed appearance. What some consider as imperfect others strive to achieve. This is the beauty of Gina Probst's creations and what the majority of the world will probably never understand." - Lost in a Sea of Sound
lostseasound.blogspot.com/2017/11/macho-blush-user-guide.html
"You may feel like a snipe hunter during the first few confrontational minutes of “Moodshow,’ but by the end, your bag is overflowing with more fantastic creatures of the night than your friends could ever imagine, and you don’t have any pressing reason to leave the woods any more." - Tabs Out
www.tabsout.com?p=15435
"Realistically this composition does not even exist in our time space continuum. The voices and sounds resemble as much as nothing as you could even fathom approaching. Even though there are tracks on Moodshow, the composition plays more as a whole."
- Lost in a Sea of Sound
lostseasound.blogspot.com/2017/04/macho-blush-moodshow.html
"... Favorite Poems is a celebration of the id, a whirlwind of psychological experimentation and sonic maximalism, and an exercise in transcending limitations."
- Cassette Gods
cassettegods.blogspot.com.au/2016/02/macho-blush-favorite-poems-self-released.html
"And what extremely innovative endeavors these are. Gina's sounds are so expansive, like noises reaching across time. Sometimes sounding futuristic, then completely tribal, blending together, being torn apart to be mixed again. Favorite Poems is fascinating and the farthest out there tape i have listened to."
- Lost in a Sea of Sound
lostseasound.blogspot.com/2015/10/macho-blush-favorite-poems.html
('Firma') "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
animalpsi.com/2013/04/macho-blush-under-weight-review/
('Under Weight') "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)." - Samantha
"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."
- anon
:::
US TOUR 2017
10/6 Nebulae, Denton, TX
10/7 Awful House, Kansas City, MO
10/8 RADINC, Iowa City, IA
10/9 Kittie Kat Club, Minneapolis, MN
10/10 Mickey's, Madison, WI
10/11 State Street Pub, Indianapolis, IN
10/12 The Spot Tavern, Lafayette, IN
10/13 Archer Ballroom, Chicago, IL
10/14 Kismet Creative Center, St. Louis, MO
10/15 House of Art, Little Rock, AR
10/16 RBC,- Dallas, TX
10/17 Backyard on Bell, Denton, TX
10/18 Beerland, Austin, TX
10/19 Frank's Tire Shop, San Antonio, TX
10/20 Sound Exchange, Houston, TX
10/21 Mudlark Theatre, New Orleans, LA
10/23 Churchhill's, Miami, FL
10/24 Las Rosas, Miami, FL
10/25 The Limin Room, Gainesville, FL
10/26 Go Bar, Athens, GA
10/27 W3SMF, Savannah, GA
10/28 Tua Linga, Charleston, SC
10/29 Charlie's, Norfolk, VA
11/1 Rhizome DC, Washington, DC
11/3 The Crown, Baltimore, MA
11/4 The Vat, Philadelphia, PA
11/5 WNYU Live in Studio, New York, NY
11/5 The Glove, New York, NY
11/6 Deep Thoughts Records, Boston, MA
11/07 TBA
11/08 The Orchard House , New Haven, CT
11/9 WFMU Live in Studio, Jersey City, NJ
11/9 TBA, New York, NY
11/10 TBA,
11/12 NO PLACE, Columbus, OH
11/14 TBA, Memphis, TN
11/15 Minicine, Shreveport, LA
11/18 Fantasyland, Denton TX
EU TOUR COMING SOON