Cassette Review: MAGICMERUXREDON "VERYDEEPREC001" (VERYDEEPRECORDS)

[€6 // Edition of 40 // https://verydeeprec.bandcamp.com/album/verydeeprec001]

I've just kind of gathered the artist name and cassette title based upon the Bandcamp page but this is a split between Magic Meru (who is Side A) and Red On (who is Side B).    While they both have similar styles they are certainly not the same artist though a collaboration between the two called "MAGICMERUXREDON" might be cool.

Magic Meru begins with the sound of water dripping which is kind of funny because the first time that I listened to this it was raining outside in the morning, then rained again in the afternoon but at the time that I was listening to it the rain was on pause outside yet seemed to be running on the cassette.     There are these quiet Phil Collins type of beats, you know, like you can feel it coming in the air tonight.     This transitions into some laser synth keys which could be a keytar or even the special keytar from Masters of the Universe but it definitely glistens.     It gets kind of trill after that, like that Dr. Dre trunk banging vibe, and then it somehow sounds like the soundtrack to a ninja.    It ends with some high synth strings and beats on loops that could be straight out of The Brood (WWE Attitude Era style, not the movie)

Red On has some power synth.   It loops and the beats get progressive.    Then the synth comes through in flashes, as if a camera is taking pictures.    This all kind of loops in a similar way to that of Magic Meru and at one point the two paths might even cross, but as we near the end of the Red On side the singing starts and I can hear some soul coming through with the clap-clap-claps.     It's kind of vaporwave on some level, but not truly vaporwave I think and that's why I prefer not to use that label.   But I did spend some time wondering what that genre was I was thinking of only to remember it was vaporwave.   But yeah, this still isn't really vaporwave I don't think but it's close... It's just something else.

In any event, these are two different storytellers crafting their own tales with similar dramatic effect and I don't see why you would like one and not the other but then again I don't really know why you wouldn't like either of these on the whole.