Taper's Choice - History of Taper's Choice (2025) [Hi-Res]

History of Taper's Choice is a compilation that captures the first two years of one of the most unconventional ensembles to emerge from the American jam scene in the early 2020s. Formed by Alex Bleeker (Real Estate), Dave Harrington (DARKSIDE), Chris Tomson (Vampire Weekend), and Zach Tenorio-Miller (Arc Iris), the project was never conceived as a conventional supergroup. Instead, it grew out of a genuine desire to subvert the genre from within.
Taper's Choice set out to disprove the received wisdom about what a jam band can be, demonstrating that deep grooves and psychedelic textures need not be constrained by genre convention. That ethos runs through the entire album: extended instrumental passages sit alongside compact vignettes, krautrock rhythms dissolve into dub space, and lyrical moments fracture into dense prog architecture.
The material was drawn from live performances, studio sessions, and demos — a format that captures the full range of the quartet's capabilities. The centerpiece "Running from the Rain" stretches past eleven minutes, tracing a long arc of tension and release, while "Hieronymus Bong" — named after a fictional character conceived by the group's graphic collaborator — serves as an eight-minute instrumental touchstone. Brief interludes "Lilac Palace (Intro)" and "Walking Around (Outro)" give the album the coherence of a live set.
The whole record flows like a waking dream, with tracks bleeding seamlessly into one another. Producer and guitarist Dave Harrington's background in electronic and experimental music is palpable throughout, lending even the sparest moments a dense, considered sonic depth.
By the time the digital reissue appeared on Blanks and Postage in September 2025, Taper's Choice had already served as the house band for Relix magazine's 50th anniversary celebration — a remarkable measure of how swiftly they had earned the trust of the jam world they set out to reinvent.

Tracklist:
1-1 Taper's Choice - Let Your Eyes Adjust to the Light [2:43]
1-2 Taper's Choice - Darkness on the Edge of Midtown [3:41]
1-3 Taper's Choice - Lilac Palace (Intro) [0:41]
1-4 Taper's Choice - Hieronymus Bong [8:03]
1-5 Taper's Choice - Lick the Toad [2:46]
1-6 Taper's Choice - Pelt [3:50]
1-7 Taper's Choice - Lick the Toad (Reprise) [0:50]
1-8 Taper's Choice - You Can't Make a Rainbow [2:12]
1-9 Taper's Choice - 21 Miles [2:36]
1-10 Taper's Choice - Type III [2:21]
1-11 Taper's Choice - The Judas Window [2:26]
1-12 Taper's Choice - Running from the Rain [11:28]
1-13 Taper's Choice - Walking Around (Outro) [2:26]