Cassette Review: Humongous "Who Among Us" (Blacktop Records)

[$8 // Edition of 100 // https://blacktoprecords.bandcamp.com/album/humongous-who-among-us-btr040]

"Who Among Us" isn't so much a cassette that you can pick and choose songs off of to like or write about as it is an experiment in sound that crosscovers genres from rock and pop to hip hop and I don't know what.   It's something that if you heard the first minute of and the last minute of only you might think it was by two separate artists, yet over the course of the cassette the flow naturally takes you there.

What begins with the sounds of synth pop that verges on boy band (Or at least someone good covering a boy band, like how Further Seems Forever did "Bye Bye Bye") turns into this cross of The Killers and Neon Trees and then ultimately has a decent Beck feel to it.     There is also this sort one of man show feel to it ala Marcus Rubio while other names like Hellogoodbye and Capitol Cities can come out as well.   It's dreamy, it's from the 1980's and it's just somehow deeper than pop.

Side A ends with a rap song that brings out a saxophone.   This song picks up at the start of Side B where it left off on A.    There are some electro beats next and I'm steering away from the hip hop and looking more towards perhaps Depeche Mode.   Animal Flag, New Kids on the Block and Human League combine before a song that brings out the sounds of EFS with beats.   This all goes back to the rap as I can hear some Black Sheep being channeled.   Oriental type tones of synth recall Flock of Seagulls and Beck, Oingo Boingo covering "She Blinded Me With Science".

Humongous ends this cassette with three simple words: "God help us".    Actually, this should be applied more closely to the people trying to review this because I can't really compare this to anyone specific, just a trail of artists who may make you not like it on paper though if you actually listened to it you probably would.    Just know that everything on this cassette seems to have a purpose, whether or not you realize it at first listen, and for that this is one of the soundly structured pieces of music I have ever heard and is just an amazing overall experience to listen through in one sitting.