What matters.
What matters?
This matters.
That matters.
Who clatters?
Those ratters,
in tatters
that shatter.
The matter
of Matter
is chatter,
not latter.
Featuring flute.
III For Phinney
by Charles Rice Goff III
1 The Coiled Cottonmouth
2 Big Muddy Memphis Distortion Blues
3 Southern Fried Anguish
INSTRUMENTS:
Korg R3 Vocoder/Synthesizer
Fender Hello Kitty Stratocaster Electronic Guitar
Various Analog Foot Pedal Sound Effects
Boss RC 20X Loop Station Loop Duplicator
FROM THE AUTHOR:
Chris Phinney and Charles Goff III began a friendship and artistic collaborative relationship during the middle 1980s, which continued to the very end of Chris’s life in the summer of 2026. Goff was informed of Chris’s passing on July 3, 2026, which turned out to be a challenging day in many ways for Goff. Chris himself was challenged by life’s unexpected disasters many times, resulting in tremendous physical and economic strains over the years. Chris never went down easy though, and his recordings often artistically channeled his frustrations. For Goff, Chris’s passing was one challenge that ate into his own soul so deeply that he cleared his schedule for that July 3 day and put his Taped Rugs Studio through a frustration-releasing improv session. Goff genuinely felt that Chris’s essence was there in the studio with him as he created the recordings.
The three recordings presented here are the end result of the session. A lot more material was recorded, but Goff specifically chose these three choicest bits to share with the general public as his respectful tribute to his late friend and associate. No materials that did not originate from the July 3 session were added to the final mixes. No artificial intelligence ( AI ) was employed in molding this presentation. These recordings are enhanced by Goff’s electric guitar playing, which, due to his own physical issues, have been absent from most of Goff’s productions for the last few years. This challenge was met and executed with the knowledge that Goff likely would physically pay for it later, which he did. (Challenge accepted!)
In the summer of 2006, during Goff’s 06/06 Tour Of The Southeast USA, Chris generously hosted Goff for a stay at his home in Memphis, Tennessee. The cover photo for this presentation was taken on Beale Street in Memphis during the visit. More information, recordings, and video from this visit can be found at this Taped Rugs site:
https://tapedrugs.com/TapedRugs0606TourArchive.html
Chris worked with hundreds of artists over the years. He initially shared his work and the work of several other artists on his Harsh Reality Music cassette label, which is well documented at the website below:
http://www.haltapes.com/harsh-reality-music.html
Chris later created an online Harsh Reality presence, was a co-founder of the Tapegerm interactive music collective, and produced a number of CDs and CDRs. Much of what is still currently offered to the public from these sources can be accessed at the websites below:
harshrealitymusic.bandcamp.com
tapegerm.org/chris-phinney/
A FEW COLLABORATIVE PHINNEY-GOFF PRODUCTIONS AVAILABLE FOR FREE STREAMING AND DOWNLOADING:
https://archive.org/details/MaestrosOfTheMagneticAge
https://archive.org/details/TapedRugsTourTennesseeOne
https://archive.org/details/TapedRugsTourTennesseeTwo
https://archive.org/details/TapedRugsTourVideo
copyright 2026 by Taped Rugs Productions
www.tapedrugs.com
Always zip, (and also latch)
Ensure your cargo is attached.
Failure to heed this mandate
Lets your goods fall to their fate.
Tumbling can be quite tragic,
Requiring repair to restore the magic.
So, remember this simple quip:
Secure your latches, and always zip!
Featuring bass clarinet.
Inner is a seven-track album by Pittsburgh electronic artist Incentive, released through Tri-Labs. The album moves through post-industrial, ambient, IDM, noise, and krautrock-influenced music and features vocals from Sia De La Paz (FrequensiaSound).
01 Conversations With the Mirror (10:33)
02 alone again (and again [and again]) (09:07)
03 spineless (12:17)
04 DAMNATION NOW (10:23)
05 shit’s confusing (05:43)
06 i don’t trust you (03:34)
07 deserve how i feel (12:31)
All tracks written by Incentive
Tracks 4, 5, and 7 co-written by Sia De La Paz
Incentive – music, production, mixing
Sia De La Paz – vocals, vocal production
Mastered by Machine Listener at Tri-Labs West
Dawn Hartman – photography
Michaela Briglia – model
released via Tri-Labs on July 13, 2026
tri-labs.org
tri-labs.bandcamp.com
If you’ve ever tried hiking up scree, you’ve likely hiked down.
It’s called the scree shuffle – one step up, two steps back.
Featuring rocks.
What is a vacuum? What does it accomplish?
If it functions well, it achieves nothing.
Featuring clarinet and robot vacuum.
Journeys through familiar places can proceed in strange ways. It is difficult to capture how, as we either fall back on tropes or into noise. Despite the distance between these extremes, their bounding lines are thin – porous.
Featuring clarinet.
Triumphantly approaching, from either side – diving and dodging, far and wide. Success is at hand, but not yet here – the drive to continue is strikingly clear.
Based on the concluding fanfare from Liszt’s Les Préludes, as featured in the 1940s Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe. Featuring orchestra and improvised overdubbed clarinet.
What is the sound of a color? Is it the same as the color of a sound? If so, it must be both bright and dark, rich and dry. It must sing its hue to the world, and paint its pitch across the sky.
Featuring bass clarinet.
Breaks expose facets – facets offer perspectives. Such variety is less transparent, but it rewards amply. Yet it also carries risk – the danger of a a breach too far, and an edge too sharp.
Featuring piano.
Being well-used does not necessarily entail being used up. Many items require a period of breaking in – resulting in a resilient litheness that allows for optimal performance.
Featuring clarinet.
So-Called Solutions To The Human Predicament
by Charles Rice Goff III
1 Alex In Wonderland
2 Degeneration Blues
3 The Shriek The Shape The Stare
4 Pay The Subscription
5 Trapped Again By The Weather Merchants
6 Holy Psychedelics
7 So-Called Solutions To The Human Predicament
8 A Permanent Coffee Break
9 I Am Your Analgesic
Goff created the recordings for “So-Called Solutions To The Human Predicament” during the first half of 2026 at the Taped Rugs Studio in Kansas City, Kansas, USA. This collection explores some edges of composition that can be achieved with outdated technologies and an attitude unconcerned with established genres of music. No artificial intelligence ( AI ) was employed in sculpting the recordings presented here.
INSTRUMENTATION :
Voice
Korg R3 Vocoder/Synthesizer
Yamaha VSS-30 Sampler/Synthesizer
Artiphon Orba
Casio AP-24 Electric Piano
Micromoog Analog Synthesizer (original, 1977)
Sounds Sampled From Various Pre-Recorded Cassettes
Hello Kitty Squire Strat Electronic Guitar
Stylophone
Boss RC 20X Loop Station Loop Duplicator
Panasonic Portable Cassette Tape Recorder
Canon Digital Camera Recorder
Diane The Mannequin Hand
SOFTWARE :
Amazing MIDI Wave-To-MIDI Converter
Polysoft MIDI to Mp3 Converter
Musescore MIDI Scorewriter (Version 0.9.6-0.7, 2011)
Roxio 2011 Sound Recorder
Cool Edit Pro II Multitrack Recorder
Audacity Multitrack Recorder (Version 2.1.2, 2015)
Several Plug-In Audio Sound Effects
Microsoft Talk It (1997)
NOTES:
1 Alex Butler helped inspire Track 1: “Alex In Wonderland.” Goff produced a video to accompany this recording in February, 2026. This video and its background story are posted at the link below:
https://archive.org/details/AlexInWonderland
2 Special thanks to original –Ing percussionist: Dennis Briggs, who unknowingly helped create Track 6: “Holy Psychedelics,” by providing Goff with a guitar strap that allowed Goff to limit neck and shoulder pain while picking and strumming.
This colleciton is available on CDR and cassette.
Performance/Engineering/Production
by Charles Rice Goff III
Copyright 2026 by Taped Rugs Productions
www.tapedrugs.com
“Stay well, stay kind to each other, do unto them as you would have them do unto you, be a good person, and enjoy music. This is the story of life. Enjoy music, and be a good person – be a good person to other people, and enjoy music. Then you’ve got it all.” – Sonny Rollins
Featuring jazz trio of organ, drum kit, and clarinet.
In the embrace of the unreal real, we are often overwhelmed. We chase loose notions, seeking candor but finding confusion. It is only through directness that we can discover our intention – act simply, and simply act.
Featuring tenor saxophone.
How does lightning reach the ground?
Inexorably and without repetition, it follows a critical path. Where resistance is least, it descends – and consumes.
Featuring orchestral strings and brass, percussion, detuned piano, electric guitar, drum kit, organ, alto flute, boys’ choir, synth, and effects.
Entwined, betwixt and twisted – beneath a silken sheet. A before and an after, with a coupling on the beat.
Fertility is but assured, as opposites will meet. This is a fecund evening, where creation is complete.
Featuring alto saxophone.
This album reflects on the feeling of a world devolving into chaos and the associated anxiety, while grasping desperately for some kind of sense of normalcy throughout. It’s also about the retreat into apathy or aimlessness.
Secondly, this is an exercise in making musical choices that can stand out in in a world where music can be prompted into existence; or the resentment of even having to think about that in the first place.
Breaking in isn’t always about burglary – it can also refer to the process of getting a new thing settled. Fresh, crisp – but not yet pliable. It takes use and time for many materials to reach their optimal point.
Featuring clarinet.
It’s easy to unfocus – it only takes a moment. That moment can stretch and blur and become something else. Yet there’s more to all this than just being along for the ride. The capacity to experience is an unparalleled wealth.
Featuring piano.
It asks a little of us here – it asks of us a certain height.
We must choose.
Featuring Eb clarinet.
Study, practice, preparation, meditation – lofty ideals and worthy goals. Yet in the moment, all we really want is to scream through a tube.
Featuring didgeridoo, flute, clarinet, and tenor saxophone.
Precious things are often hidden. We choose to protect what we treasure by shielding it from prying eyes, and more. To a point, this is rational – but to a broader point, it’s inevitably best to share what we have.
Featuring alto saxophone.
Smell, like sound, permeates a space. But smell is physically inculcated onto and into the substances it reaches, where sound simply bounces off. Imagine experiencing music as a smell, allowing the sound to stay with you.
Featuring bass clarinet.
Coming from opposing directions, seemingly in disagreement – the triads belie tribalism. Within their cozy group the harmony is clear, but when considered in broader context it becomes uncertain. Yet this conflict is illusory – though they duel, the outcome of their combination is in fact a larger and more beautiful harmony than before.
Featuring electric keyboard.
