Sawyr's Tape Zone

My Stuff

Unregistered Hypercam 2

I began writing songs as poems after reading a foreword about Anne Sexton written by her daughter. Unregistered Hypercam 2 is a reflection of those feelings and many other feelings I've felt.

Big Club

I released Big Club on September 26th, 2025. It is an album about how hopeless it can feel sometimes to be trapped in exploitative cycles. It is the last of three albums recorded during the summer of 2025.

Fettuccine Alfredo Diorama

Fettuccine Alfredo Diorama released on August 31st. This is my fourth full-length tape, and the second of my space-fi explorations. Some of these songs are survivors from the Hermit Crab Sarcophagus sessions, but most were written after the fact. Three new Compulsions songs break this one up at the beginning, middle, and end!

Hermit Crab Sarcophagus

I released my third tape, Hermit Crab Sarcophagus on June 2nd, 2025. It was the last album recorded fully on my Tascam MF-P01 Portastudio before my recent upgrade to a Porta03 MkII. You'll find out more about that when the next one releases! Until then, please enjoy Hermit Crab Sarcophagus. I'm calling it a Space-Fi record for now, but let me know if you have a better genre for it.

Commercial Break

I released Commercial Break on November 4th 2024! This album was fully recorded and mixed using a Tascam MF-P01 Portastudio (with some mastering in Audacity to reduce the tape hiss). Check out the album below, and let me know your favorite song from it using the Contact Me form at the bottom of the page!

You Are In Wilkinsburg Now?

On May 22nd, 2024, I released You Are In Wilkinsburg Now? I've been working on this album since 2017, technically, but I didn't start recording until late 2021. You Are in Wilkinsburg Now? is available now, both digitally and on cassette tape over on my Bandcamp! You can use the player below to listen to the album!

An ordered ranking of every Yakuza movie I've seen.

Sympathy for the Underdog: Koji Tsuruta is amazing alongside Noburo Ando, Hideo Murota, and Asao Koike—star studded cast without even mentioning Tomisaburo Wakayama's stellar performance. The pacing and the cinematography are both incredible, and the ending is peak Fukasaku.
Sonatine: Half Yakuza movie half statement on desensitization to killing, every death in this movie is soulless despite how deeply you may love each character. The scene on the beach where Kitano's main group is playing full-size paper sumo is one of the best moments I've seen ever.
Ceremony of Disbanding: A lot of Yakuza movies play off of the "grizzled ex-yakuza gets out of jail to find that the world has changed around him" trope, but I think this one executed best on the premise without having to change the setting to accommodate (see: Sympathy for the Underdog). Tsuruta is excellent as is Fuji Sumiko, and Tetsuro Tamba's Sakai is a perfect foil to Tsuruta's Sawaki that you'd almost like an entire movie dedicated specifically to their dynamic after Sawaki's release. Unfortunately for Sawaki, this is a Fukasaku film, so you know there won't be a sequel in his future.
Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Police Tactics: The Battles series really picks up once the faction wars reach full swing. Hirono vs Yamamori reaches its real fever pitch here, and the remaining of the Yamamori pawns from the earlier entries see their fates stretch out in front of them here.
Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Proxy War: This is very close to being beat for beat on-par with Police Tactics, although some of the proxy factions suffer from being underdeveloped. Still incredible, and the film grain on the final scenes here are burned into my brain.
Bloodstained Clan Honor: This is similar to Ceremony of Disbanding but with so many extra elements driving the story. You still get that affected, disconnected Tsuruta performance but it's a B-plot to a very successful Sugawara-driven moral struggle.
Crossing the Rubicon: It's funny! It also is constantly keeping the action moving without really sputtering out. Kinya Kitaoji and Takuzo Kawatani were made to betray one another, but the betrayals here are played for laughs rather than being for keeps. Well, sorta anyway. A stunning genre shift from Fukasaku.
Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Final Episode: A great ending to the series. I was shocked to see Hirono survive alongside Takeda, but I wouldn't have wanted any other ending for these two.
Japan Organized Crime Boss: A rare miss for me as far as Tsuruta films go. There are some excellent parts here but the plot revolves around a man unwilling to take the wheel while knowing full well that he's the only one that can steer the car to safety. Not bad by any means, just not up to my expectations.
Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Great jumping-off point for the series. Feels like a standalone Yakuza movie but creates an incredible universe.
Street Mobster: Noburo Ando and Bunta Sugawara play off each other remarkably well here, and Nagisa Mayumi excels at matching the intensity opposite Sugawara's Ozaki. My largest complaint, and the main detractor for this movie, is the weird assault victim/perpetrator to lovers storyline that drives the romance subplot.
Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Deadly Fight in Hiroshima: Weakest of the Battles series, this one focuses on a one-off character without advancing the plot much. It does a great job setting the stakes for the next three films, but I wasn't as engrossed in this as I was in the other entries in the series.
Fudoh: The New Generation: This was one of the most highly-recommended Miike films, and it didn't really connect with me. The main characters were all incredibly likeable but the plot felt loose and a lot of the appeal was seemingly the shock value.
Big Time Gambling Boss: Tomisaburo Wakayama is usually a standout performer but in this movie he was unbearable for me. It didnt make sense to me why he wouldn't trust Tsuruta's character's judgement seeing as they were sworn brothers, and that defiance was the main plot driver which made it feel like a slog. I want to revisit this again just in case, but not a winner to me.
Yokohama Underworld: Machine Gun Dragon: Bunta Sugawara stars as a vaguely codependent mama's boy with decision paralysis. The silliness of the American gangsters makes up for the 3+ minute crying scene, but barely.
Yakuza Graveyard: An outstanding performance by Tatsuo Umemiya is the most positive thing I can say about this movie. I feel like the violence was largely the point of this movie, but it mostly fell flat. Fukusaku does a great job building worlds where there are no good guys, but at the end of the day, nothing really seemed to happen here.
Yakuza Demon: Bad characters with little to no motivation, loose plot, confusing relationships. The violent scenes in this were exhilarating (e.g. the raid that sparks the main conflict of the movie), but beyond that I did not really connect with any parts of the film otherwise.

Is there a movie I need to watch and add to this list? Sign my guestbook and drop me a note! Next up on my list are Blood of Revenge; Wolves, Pigs, and Men; Hokuriku Proxy War; and Outlaw Killers: Three Mad Dog Brothers, but I'd love to add more to the list.

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