Thursday, September 4, 2014

CASSETTE REVIEW: ARU // Underwater Escape from the Black Hole (5cm Recordings)


            While I have never heard ARU before (I assumed it stood for something, but I’m still unclear as to what that might be exactly) it is always good to hear new music by Underwater Escape from the Black Hole.    Sometimes the continuing saga of UWEFTBH makes me think he should’ve either escaped or been caught escaping by now, but nonetheless…

            ARU begins with these skipping sort of beats.   They almost sound like they’re underwater and I can think of them as being a minimalistic version of The Prodigy or a song like “Head Like a Hole”.   There are these sort of vocals and I can’t explain them but they’re there and they aren’t really vocals, but otherwise this is instrumental.   Sounds of records scratching (As if the record is being scratched, not that sound specifically) lead us into a slower and quieter version of these sounds.

            This is mainly filled with a lot of loops and it should have some kind of label to attach to it- some sort of subgenre if you will- and I kept trying to think of one but kept coming up blank.   It’s not vaporwave, though that was my first thought, and it’s not even really glo-fi though I feel that might be a bit closer, but it is something and it is quite good.

            Side B features UWEFTBH and it begins in a sense of FNL music.   There is dark, distorted drone and then it becomes this chopped up sort of triumphant synth.   There are sort of vocals in here as well, but not the same as from the ARU side.   UWEFTBH finds some beats and just overall these sort of electronic keytar type of sounds within loops and patterns.  

            While this may not be how I remember UWEFTBH exactly, it is still something I can get behind and I feel like the addition of ARU to the mix will only help matters in the long run.   People might be drawn to this for UWEFTBH and why wouldn’t they be?   But if they find the ARU side they are sure to like it as well, and I call that win-win.  







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