[$7 // Edition of 100 // https://psychictroublestapes.bandcamp.com/album/jesse-sparhawk-peace-peace-peace]
"Peace Peace Peace" was my introduction to Psychic Troubles Tapes and while I'm not really sure if Jesse Sparhawk is a stage name or an actual name the title of this cassette does imply that it might be sort of an acoustic guitar and hippy vibe. On a side note, sort of related, if you know anything about me outside of music you know that I'm a fan of professional wrestling. So there is a wrestler in NXT right now who is a pacifist (Don't ask) and his name is C.J. Parker. This is only funny because he always wants to spread the word of peace and loving Mother Earth, yet C.J. Parker was also the name of Pamela Anderson's character on "Baywatch". (Wow, first paragraph and we've got a "Baywatch" reference. Not sure if that means this review is going well or not)
The music of Jesse Sparhawk does inspire peace in the way that it is relaxing. It begins quietly with acoustic guitar strings being plucked and along with that pattern comes what appears to be the sound of a harp and possibly even piano keys. Now it is very possible that all of these sounds are simply being made by a guitar and it just takes on that form in my ears, but if there are multiple instruments I don't want to know about it either because I feel it would take away some of the magic.
There are bits of string scratching and overall this just has the sound of someone who classically trained in music yet at the same time could be playing a night club ala Sammy Davis Jr. If you've ever seen the episode of "Family Guy" when Brian opens up a night club and Frank Sinatra Jr. performs there I think of it as being like that only before it all went horribly awry and probably not animated either.
At one point in my notes I mentioned that this had the sound of either being played with Sammy Davis Jr. or in Heaven. My idea behind putting this as a soundtrack in Heaven raises two issues that I don't want to deal with really though: it brings up the concept of religion which is always up for debate with everyone you meet and it also has this sort of morbid sense to it as well, like you couldn't hear this as a mere mortal. I think what I was going for with it though was that it just sounds angelic.
I was also going to make a comparison about how this could be the work of someone who went to one of the top music schools in the world and graduate at the top of the class only to end up playing sort of open mic nights, but then when I think about this sharing a stage akin to Sammy Davis Jr. I realize that there is simply no shame there. At all.
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