Dee Sada "Fragments" (Tip Top Recordings)

[[£5 // Edition of 10 // https://deesada.bandcamp.com/album/fragments]]

This has a release date on Bandcamp of January 10, 2014 (which was my son's second birthday) and yet it came up in my recent searches for cassettes just now so I can only assume it was posted to Bandcamp after the fact.     It also should be noted that the price to download this is the same as the cassette though you have to international shipping on the cassette if you're like me and live outside of the UK.  (Dee Sada is from London as per the Bandcamp page info)

As a cassette this an edition of ten and while it states they will all be fluorescent green they will be hand numbered and have individual covers which is always an interesting touch when putting out such a limited cassette as this.  (Perhaps the EP was released in January and it's just making its way to cassette now?)

What matters here though is the music and it's beautiful.    There is a certain sound of acoustic guitar and vocals happening, but there are other various instruments going on at times as well and that just adds to the overall appeal of it, as it's not just straight up anything but rather more of a blend.

Artists like Polly Scattergood (who I do hear in everything these days, yes) and Heavy Boots come out as well as just the dreamier side of rock that can be traced back to the likes of Cowboy Junkies and Mazzy Star.   It's really that these two sort of genres combine themselves with just so much more that I can't even begin to describe and it is in that way that the music of Dee Sada forges its own path.

You know, it's really not often that an artist like this comes along.   You feel so familiar with them as the music can channel some of your favorites and best known artists, yet at the same time it doesn't really sound like anyone else and just really becomes their own.    The last time I can remember feeling this way was the first time I heard Robin Kirby and that was certainly life changing as well.

Jonáš Gruska "CAA#9" (Cyland)

[[$20 // 7.5" Polycarbonate lathe cut // https://cyland.bandcamp.com/album/caa-9]]

Right away I can tell you that since this is twenty dollars for a lathe cut it's getting the digital treatment because Russia is a long way for a record to travel.

These are three songs that have a lot of beeps and could be made using any sort of electronic device that also can adjust frequencies to various levels.   In a lot of ways it has that feel of R2D2 to it and as such it makes me feel as if R2D2 is communicating with some other droids so naturally I enjoy it.

This is my second time listening to and reviewing something by Jonáš Gruska and as such I feel the need to point out that even with that sweet, sweet guitar hum drone there is just something different about this collection of three songs.   I recall the other four songs as having more individual qualities where these flow together almost as one.

It's not bad that they do that though because it just gives you a sense of pride and accomplishment after listening to this all the way through.   Additionally, you wouldn't just listen to any of these tracks by itself either but more likely the entire piece and finding a way for the listener to listen to it all is quite the achievement.

Gunwaif "Arpega" [single]

 [[ Name Your Price Download // https://gunwaif.bandcamp.com/track/arpega ]]

We open with the sound of water and trap-clap banging type of noise.   Female vocals come out and there are some sort of screwed vocals being manipulated behind it as well.   There is a lot going on here, and when you dissect each individual layer I bet it still sounds good, but together, yeah, this is taking music to a whole new level.

Horns come in to bring out a reference to Cake and it feels like they did this whole song from start to finish then ran it through some machine in post production to have it chopped up.   Some instrumental bits now verge on this 8bit glass type of sound.    The horns come back but the trumpet more closely resembles a car horn now.

The water from the beginning seemed to stop with the singing, but now as we are nearing the end it has returned.   Perhaps we are merely pouring some out for our lost friends, but I have no idea.    This song is like listening to an entire album of songs layered over one another but without it sounding like shit.    You need to hear this song to truly understand what music is about.

Pare Ohm / JWPaton (Junk Mnemonic)

[[$5 AUD // Edition of 10 // https://junkmnemonic.bandcamp.com/album/jm-1 ]]

This is the first release from Junk Mnemonic and it is a split between two artists.     It has a cassette release though it is limited to only ten and comes from Australia so I'm doing it digitally because I feel as if I should only do digital reviews from this point going forward if it is something special such as this.

Pare Ohm's piece begins with that sound of an old furnace perhaps, but something of that nature making some sort of noise that is just dragging out in a drone way.     It is almost definitely the sound of some kind of plugged in appliance dying but I can't place what one exactly.    It somehow has this almost rusty sound to it, like I imagine whatever it is being metal for that reason, because it is rusting out and dying.    The sounds continue in this way and it begins to sound like a horror movie somehow as well.      It quiets down then shifts in the jingling of bells.    This fades in and out which reminds me more of space than anything else.   After a short pause of sorts we move from what I can assume to be the first movement into the second, though it's still Pare Ohm and would still be Side A on the cassette.

This has become quieter now.   Still the jingles of sorts but more like a spatial glass structure being built instead.   It comes through in gently crashing waves.    I keep thinking it might just be the interlude ending, as it takes breaks, but it does come back interminently and as such I can feel this as being the "Mouth Breather" portion.   A slight hint of sonar has presented itself in the background and we've gone from space to underwater.   I do not recommend breathing out of your mouth while underwater.   Drum sticks seem to be hitting together now.   Synth beats are kicking in with these bamboo stick type of tones following in a rhythm.   The inhales and exhales of the title also sound like they could be the hiss of a snake.   This all slows to an end.

JWPaton begins next with two tracks joined into one only there is no interlude this time around it would seem.    It begins with a crackling, shattering of glass type of sound that could be harsh noise but it could also somewhat just as easily convert into industrial by the way it's going.    It has that electricity sound to it, like if you stick your hand in an electric socket and are getting fried.   It's pretty cool because it makes me think of the Marvel villain (and Spider-Man foe) Electro taking on a Transformer.   If that is not yet a comic book crossover it needs to happen.

This all comes crashing down in the hum of a dial tone, though it does kind of more closely resemble someone sitting on a keyboard for some reason (the musical one, not the type I'm typing on)   Some rather sharp feedback follows and I'm not entirely putting it past this piece to be industrial still for reasons that I could still imagine it being in a boiler room.  (To the extent that I want to look up when Mankind and Undertaker had the boiler room brawl and watch it)

And now the screaming is breaking on through, crushing any notions I had of it being industrial and turning it into harsh noise.    It was building to that moment and I should have heard it coming the first time, but wow what a payoff.   It ends with that organ drone sound once again but it does have quite the force behind it.

Both of these artists are bringing something original and vital to the table with this release and it is something that really must be heard.

Hyper Vigilance "Eat more medication demo tape"

[[$7 // Edition of 100 // https://hypervigilance.bandcamp.com/album/eat-more-medication-demo-tape  ]]

Whenever I see releases such as this I always want to try and figure out what the title means.   We're all medicated somehow, aren't we?  If you take Tylenol you're medicated on some level.    But this music implies something a little bit different and it's the type of medication you would hope it reaches- the psychotics.

On one side of this music are the beats.   It's not really electronic in that sense, as the beats are more of a thumping variety.   It's the pounding, the breaking... though there is a certain undeniable rhythm to it all.    Trapped behind this are vocals sceaming to get out.   Through static booms of doom these songs seem to be conflicted amongst themselves.

Equal parts Dana Fowler And The, dreamcrusher and I Like You, Go Home the music of Hyper Vigilance is electronic hardcore on paper but when you see that tag and think Atari Teenage Riot and the like that is really just not how this sounds at all.   it's that almost metal backing with a variation on electronica in front of it.

This music paints an image of a man in a straightjacket, locked inside a padded cell.  I like to think of The Joker or any number of other criminals in Gotham safely secure in Arkham Asylum.   The constant banging of the head against the door echoing through the empty halls reminds us all that we are at home.

Jonáš Gruska "Nočné oscilácie pre jedného" (LOM)

[[SOLD OUT // Edition of 10 // https://zvukolom.bandcamp.com/album/no-n-oscil-cie-pre-jedn-ho ]] 

On each of these four songs by Jonáš Gruska there is a distinct connection in the way that the songs are structured, yet they each have their own sound as well.    It reminds me of what would happen if an artist took a song like "Mary Had a Little Lamb" and played it on a guitar, then on a violin and so on with other string instruments.    They are all connected, yet they are not all the same.

The first track has these beeping whirrs to start things off and it sounds like the changing of frequencies.    This goes into a looping pattern which comes out with a kind of pinball game noise to it as well.    If I was listening to this on cassette or somehow not paying as close attention to Windows Media Player, I'd still hear the distinction into the second, quieter track whih is comprised more of blips and clicks like the drum machine of Phil Collins

As the second track grows in volume and tempo it gives way to the sound of glasses, really glass bottles being played as musical instruments.    We end with beeping, much like a hospital machine, which delivers sonic whirrs behind it and it almost has a sound where it could be in space.

There is guitar feedback almost out of nowhere, yet it flows so smoothly still, and then it turns into that hum of a drone and I feel that should be how it ends, as it would fade out as such but instead it gets this one last whoosh to lift us up before the end.    It's the sound of a toy whistle, maybe even a kazoo but in an electric sense.

The only way to get this cassette now is second hand but if I happen to see it out there in the cassette world I would be eager to try and get my hands on it.    Until then all we can really do is continue to download and listen to it from the Bandcamp page and then hope that one day maybe it will be pressed again.

Animal Flag & Plainview "Things That Keep Us Up At Night"

[[Name Your Price Download // https://animalflag.bandcamp.com/album/things-that-keep-us-up-at-night]]

After reviewing two Animal Flag albums previously, I find myself listening to this split EP and only really thinking about how Animal Flag has acoustic based songs and electric based ones as well, yet whatever comes into my mind never really seems to matter anymore as Animal Flag has become its own entity to me.

It makes a great deal of sense since I've been hearing Animal Flag in other artists for quite some time now (and making note of it in the appropriate reviews)    That distinctive voice that I once tried to place just sounds like Animal Flag to me now.  

The song "Grown" is about how all of the bad stuff has helped make us who we are and in its own way it can be somewhat catchy.   It's more of the get up and dance track of the two because it is followed by "When the Victim is Played", which is the acoustic, sad number that for some reason sounds like it's raining in the background of throughout.

If you've still somehow managed to not hear Animal Flag then these two songs on this EP are a somewhat fair introduction to how the music can be electric or acoustic and just give you an overall idea of what to expect when listening to more songs (which you definitely need to, though saying it makes me feel like a broken record)

This EP does serve as my introduction to Plainview though, which as a name reminds me of a shortened version of Hidden in Plainview, who were never my favorite band.   The first of the two songs has this punk vibe underneath the otherwise tone of perhaps Forgive Durden and what I want to say is ska.   It's something like The Rocket Summer or The Academy Is, but really it just has that quality where you can say it belongs with those sorts of bands without actually sounding like one of them definitively.

The vocals have a way of being stretched out as so they're almost screamed and sometimes that primal scream does come out.    In fact, that bridge that does somewhat scream in "2338" (Which is odd because the instruments get quieter while the vocals grow louder) reminds me of I Am the Avalanche.

"Seasons", the second song, has an acoustic vibe to it that reminds me a lot more of, well, Animal Flag than anything else.   Yes, I do reference comparisons to Animal Flag in other reviews but, no, I didn't think I'd be doing it in this review as well.   There are still some Avalanche undertones though.    What can only be best described as baseball organs take us into a slew of lyrics about the winter and that actually does make this sound a little bit more like a Christmas song.

A dreamy guitar solo leaves me uncertain as to who to compare this to now, but I do picture Santa Claus playing the guitar and yet I still want to hear more from Plainview so that's saying something.   The way the song kind of draws out at the end here reminds me of The Honorary Title but it doesn't really resemble them in any other ways specifically.

So I'd go through my normal thing here and say that this is four songs and two of them I knew were good ahead of time and the other two I wasn't sure of because I'd never heard of the artist before, but let's be real about this, people.   This is an Animal Flag split and you can download it for zero dollars.   You knew I would be downloading this regardless of what the other two songs sounded like.    Thankfully, they're rather good and now I'm going to go look them up when my internet is done glitching.

WORKER/PARASITE "Proletariat EP" (Opal Tapes)

[[$8 // edition unknown //  https://workerparasite510.bandcamp.com/album/proletariat-ep]]

The first song on the "Proletariat EP" cuts like the whirr of a helicopter blade with static glitches mixed in.   The heavy noise reminds me of dreamcrusher on some levels and then it quickly changes into the second song.    "Bag of Beans" is a bit more upbeat, with beat loops and highhats added in as well.   There is something about the way that the tones sound, as if they're not proper drums and the such, but they do have a nice rhythm and overall electronic feel to them.

As the rest of this EP goes, the songs tend to lean towards the electronic side of things and really just seemed to have that glitch feel on the first song.    Sometimes there can be noises here and there that could be traced back to the original glitch, but for the most part this is electro-dancing fun.  
Hints of 8bit can come out towards the end and at one point there is a reoccurring whistle sound that is somewhat out of place.    I was so into the zone and focused when I was first listening to this that when the whistle noise came out I was looking around, wondering where that sound was coming from as it has that sort of smoke detector going off vibe to it.

This specific Bandcamp site gives no indication as to what this is an edition of exactly, but it does tell me that only eight remain at the time of my writing this which is why I went the digital route- there were so few copies left.   It was available from Opal Tapes originally but has since sold out there.  

So if you are not fortunate enough to get one of the last remaining copies of this cassette, it is still worth a listen either by downloading it or simply streaming.    The asking price for the cassette is $8, so if you're going to download it you should give the artist maybe four or five bucks so the music can continue to be made.

Additional Links: Opal Tapes // Opal Tapes Page for This Release