CASSETTE REVIEW: Chaperone / Keziah Mason split (Quiet Bodies)

http://quietbodies.bandcamp.com/album/chaperone-keziah-mason-split

            This split cassette is my first time hearing Keziah Mason, but my second time hearing Chaperone, and you know, I really do like the idea of having the splits in this manner where you know and like one of the artists and thus you feel as if you’ll probably like the pairing as well.

            The Chaperone side of this is interesting for reasons outside of the music.   The title is “Boycott American Football”, which basically is what the NFL is, and I find that interesting because the World Cup is going on as I’m typing this and I’ve been watching matches, writing reviews during half times and listening to the cassettes in the morning.   (Though for this particular cassette, I first listened to it at night)

            I don’t particularly hear anything in the music that would make me think of football (or futbol), but that’s okay because I do still enjoy it a lot.   There is this dark quality to it that makes me think it could be on “The Crow” soundtrack somehow, but it also has electronic elements and loops throughout.   The industrial beats are probably what gives it away most, though by the end of it there are these pounding beats that stray away from all of the other music and sound most like gun shots. 

            On the flip side of this we have Keziah Mason, who according to a Google search is a HP Lovecraft character and a Salem witch.   Fair enough.   The music here begins with chanting, such as monks, and then it becomes hauntingly hollow.   There are loops and something that almost sounds like chains being dragged.   I know it might just be the influence of the name, but this does have a certain horror movie quality to it.

            Overall, for the Keziah Mason portion of this split cassette, I am reminded of an image that is so clear in my mind, but I just cannot place what movie I have seen it in.   The image is of a place where all the lost souls are trapped—all the damned- and they are trying to constantly escape.   In some ways I feel like this place could be Hell, but in other ways I feel as if it is much, much worse.

            Between these two artists, they have created a masterpiece and whether it was intended or not, the two sides really do work well together.   Sometimes when you’re listening to splits, you do get the sense of two artists just sort of being thrown together in a “That side’s yours, this side’s mine” kind of way, but this just gels.