RECORD REVIEW: Potions “MIDI Jazz Bass” (Lake Paradise Records)

http://lakeparadiserecords.bandcamp.com/album/midi-jazz-bass

                In the early days of Raised by Gypsies, I used to search the entire internet for every single piece of music being released at any time.   I would take what action what action was necessary and listen to the music so that I could review it.   Often times, with some of the bigger releases that weren’t on Bandcamp, I had to resort to streaming certain albums through Spotify once they were already released.   Many of these reviews can be found as titled “SPOTIFY REVIEW”, though in recent months I haven’t listened to Spotify and have considered even wiping it from my hard drive.

                I like to think of that time as being somewhat of my formative years, as I was trying to figure out exactly what I wanted to do and what I wanted out of Raised by Gypsies.  I settled with the fact that most of what I had labeled as Spotify reviews were being reviewed also by enough other people so I had to stick with something that needed some more exposure and light shed on it, if you will.   Currently, I feel as if my reviews are maybe 80% cassette based, 15% record based and then 5% compact disc based as there are still some quality CDs out there (Most of which don’t have barcodes, mind you)

                This is all only relevant because when I would listen to that sort of 1980’s synth wave type of instrumental beats electro what not on Spotify, that’s what Potions reminds me of most.   I know it wasn’t Battles, though it might have been Twin Shadow, but I just don’t remember the band name exactly though I remember there being a few of them.    Granted, I was listening to these sorts of bands on Spotify as recently as last year, but this record still somehow feels like a nice throwback to that time and for that I can appreciate it as a representation of such without going through and buying all those other past albums I’ve seemingly forgotten about.

                Not quite hip hop, not quite vaporwave, the best way to describe this is as smooth like the soundtrack to a 1990’s cop movie (But not Beverly Hills Cop, which is my standard go-to)    There are hints of Peter Frampton, saxophone and possibly even an accordion, but I really just like this because it’s representative of all of the music I’ve heard that was similar to it that came before it, yet none of that seems to matter now so long as I have this.