CASSETTE REVIEW: Politesse “Holographic Time Tunnel – 2010 to 2012 –“(Illuminated Paths)

http://illuminatedpaths.bandcamp.com/

                I assume based on the title that this cassette collects music from Politesse from 2010 to 2012, but I can’t find it on the Illuminated Paths Bandcamp at the time of my writing this.  (If it does show up later, I’ll edit it and add that link in as well)    For a collection of older cuts, this is quite a cassette to hear.

                It begins with electric guitar loops, which are a step above FNL in loudness.   There is static, some ins and outs, and just overall tape manipulation.   The second song becomes trippy and Santana like in the guitar nature.   It is somewhere between dreamy and a distorted video game.   Electronic drum beats fill my ears, as it also resembles an instrumental, blurry version of P.O.D. – but only in a precise manner.

                There is an overall tropical island feel to this, and I can’t distinguish on Side B whether there are vocals or an audio clip.   It might fall under some –gaze category, but it also picks up the FNL pace throughout the course of the cassette.   Darker guitar strings do come out in time, along with more waves crashing.    Lasers give way to other electronic bits before we finally reach space, the final frontier.

                So riddle me this:  How is it that this, a cassette, seems to be from the not too distant past, as the title would suggest, yet when you listen to the music on it the general concept seems to be much more futuristic?