CASSETTE REVIEW: Dozen Draft “Hands” (Already Dead Tapes)

Dozen Draft “Hands” (Already Dead Tapes)

http://alreadydeadtapes.bandcamp.com/

                I don’t remember the first time that I heard Modest Mouse.  Actually, the first time that I heard Modest Mouse, I probably wasn’t even aware at the time that I was listening to them.   I don’t even recall the first time I heard a lot of bands.   But now, writing about music as I am, it’s much easier to document when the first time I hear something new is.

                Hearing Dozen Draft for the first time is not too much unlike hearing Modest Mouse for the first time.   You want to say a lot of, “Well, it sounds like _____, only not” and “It’s kind of like ______, but not really”.   Mostly, it’s hard to draw comparisons when you hear something this new and unique.   In a lot of ways, it’s like hearing music itself for the very first time.   This is definitely a feeling that I enjoy, though I don’t feel it so often these days.

                So how do I describe this exactly?  It has some worldly qualities to it, like tribal beats and what not.   It can be funky or just a little bit out there like Soundgarden’s “Spoon Man”.   All the while, you’re thinking it’s going to be pure instrumental and then vocals come in on the second song.

                There’s a drum machine.  There are keyboards, not synth.  There are moderately paced and upbeat sounding songs where I want to compare it to Pinback.  Then when the vocals come in, there are horns that come out like jazz.   I’m thinking kind of like Sweep the Leg Johnny only not.

                This cassette can also take us on a wonderful journey through what sounds like music straight out of India to something that for lack of a better comparison I could only really relate to being twee or Beatles-like.  

                In a lot of ways, this does remind me of someone (such as myself) trying to explain Modest Mouse to someone.   How do you describe them?  You can use them as a focal point to relate other bands to, but it’s rather hard to say who they sound like.   Or at least it is easier to just say it sounds like Modest Mouse than to try and go into great detail explaining all of the tiny facets of their precise sound.

                So I will simply just say that this sounds like Dozen Draft.   And one day, some day in the future, that will be enough.