Friday, August 1, 2014

CASSETTE REVIEW: Paper Thin “Paper Thin EP”


                The first thing that I noticed about this cassette is that these songs seem to be put onto just your standard blank cassette- which I believe is the style/brand I purchased more recently from Walmart- and though it is ninety minutes worth of tape space, the songs which make up the EP do not go for as long.     On one hand, you have to think about the wasted space, and I often can get upset if artists/labels only use 16 minutes out of a side that has 20 minutes on it.    But as a sort of first release type of self-released cassette, this doesn’t really bother me as it does at least let me hear these songs on my preferred medium.

                What matters most in this particular release are the songs themselves.   They begin with hip hop beats which transition into something a little bit more Kimya Dawson-ish.    It has a lo-fi/bedroom pop sound to it and of course that somehow brings out Stupid Bummed for me.    Sharp xylophone notes and eventually piano keys take us through what is just an incredible piece of music.

                With the way that this cassette is produced (And I’ve seen people ask a lot more for a lot less), it has a d.i.y. sort of demo feel to it.   It’s the sort of thing that you could pay three dollars for if you saw this band live, but then if you wanted something to review or for whatever reason people might need demos (Booking? Labels?) then they could give you a cassette for free.    So in that sense it is practical.

                The things you need to realize is that first and foremost this is an EP that should just be able to speak for itself musically.   But even if you don’t like cassettes, you should purchase this cassette if you do happen to like the music of Paper Thin just to show that this has legs to stand on.    In many ways, this self-released cassette just screams to labels that if you put this music out it will be successful for you.

                Personally, I toy with the idea of starting a cassette label from time to time, sure, and if I did happen to have one when I got this cassette from Paper Thin, I would undoubtedly want to give this EP a proper release on cassette.   It feels so simple, so natural that it should occur that it can only help but feel inevitable. 




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