Cassette Review: Moonlit Sun "Glass Skies" (Diazepam)

[€4 // https://diazepamnoise.bandcamp.com/album/moonlit-sun-glass-skies]

To begin this review, I'd like to say two things about the name Moonlit Sun.   First off, it keeps reminding me of "Moonlit Sailor", which is an all right band of Deep Elm.   Second, it reminds me of a line from a Sage Francis song where he says "I believe the sun is merely a reflection of the moon".   So if I can already think of post rock and hip hop when going into this cassette I assume to be noise then you know you're in some sort of non-genre trouble.

On Side A there are cymbals and percussion clanking to start.   It is pots and pans and I'm not sure what technical instruments are ever used in these sounds but I always like to just think of someone with an audio recorder running through a busy restaurant kitchen.    The rhythm picks up though and it begins to move like a train.   Chugga chugga.   There are spoken word bits which can come out somewhat like a demon, though at the same time I love Hellblazer enough that I could believe it to be an exorcism.   Dinging comes out and I'm thinking maybe about pinball, but still this most sounds like a locomotive.   Within whispers there are some more loops that remind me of "Du Hast", kind of like Exu did on that other cassette.   A split second of "Law & Order" tones end the side.

When Side B begins it's quieter.   There is static and it sounds like some mist or fog more than harsh and it just has taken a much softer turn than what was presented on the first side.   Then it gets a little bit harsh, with the static being cranked up a notch, and the banging of the steel comes in like John Henry.    Words are being spoken and they put me into a trance.   There is some ringing, some slight dinging almost of the pots and pans and we return somehow to that "Law & Order" bit Side A ended on.    I don't know why this suddenly feels like a court case, but amidst all of the other seeming weirdness I'll take it.

So what starts and builds with intensity only sort of slows down and becomes quieter on the second side, but it still has enough qualities of noise that haven't been presented before or at least not in this manner and as such you should be adding this to your collection as easily as you would any of the other Diazepam cassettes I'm reviewing.