Unless
if I’ve heard an artist before, I’m not really certain what to expect from them
(and even then), so most times I listen to cassette with a clean slate, never
sure what’s going to come on when I press play, and this cassette by Nik Hb is
no exception. Though this is not made
entirely of guitars exclusively, it is a rather guitar based cassette and I really
do find it fascinating that the single instrument in some ways acts as an
entire band would.
What
begins as a crushing distorted guitar chord brings out notes within the
buzz. It loops and it crashes in such
a way that I’d never heard before- never thought of before even- and yet now it
somehow seems so obvious. The second track gets some sort of possible
vocals and has these slight hints of pop, but this is mostly a genuine
demonstration on how the guitar can be used and how all these years so many
artists before this haven’t been living up to its potential.
Side
B (There are two songs per side, which I like to call the even split) has more
of a Star Wars vibe to it, with static and waves it can become quite
robotic. It is a change of pace on the
third song from what Side A was, but it doesn’t stray too far away from its
base. The fourth song is where things
get interesting, as for the first time the distortion is gone. Guitar notes now ring through clearly, cleanly
and crisply as it’s somewhere between scales and Nirvana (Something like tuning
on the Unplugged CD and “Something in the Way”).
As I’ve
said, I never really have any sort of preconceived notions on a particular
cassette when I first press play, but somehow “#edgeofthebed” by Nik Hb has simply left me blown away.
No comments:
Post a Comment