Friday, February 6, 2015

Cassette Review: BOAR "BAD GRAMMAR" (Personal Archives)


[$5 // Edition of 30 // http://personalarchives.bandcamp.com/album/bad-grammar]

As soon as I press play on "BAD GRAMMAR" I can hear heavy static bursts come out.   They have moments of extreme harshness while at other times they seem to be put on pause.   They come in and out in waves with quiet parts and sometimes small beeps put in as well.    The one thing that I always remember about Side A- no matter how many times I listen to this cassette by BOAR- is the seeming quickness with which it goes by.

I sit and I write down notes.   I scribble out four lines that are hand written and thus only legible to me.   Every time I recount them, I play them over in my mind like steps as if to assemble something they are always the same.    And then the cassette stops.    On the other hand, Side B is filled with more notes, longer pieces it would seem and I feel as if a trick is being played on my mind.

Sometimes I will say rather random pieces of trivia to make my point, but hear me out first.   When they made the "Lord of the Rings" as a movie trilogy they had an exhibit for it at a museum in Houston.   We went to see it and they showed how using perspective they could make Frodo look so small and Gandalf look so large.    They did this- for a free- and took a picture of my father and I, both in each different role.

I feel like in a lot of ways BOAR is playing that same trick with me, only with my ears instead of my eyes, because again, no matter how many times I listen to this I feel as if Side A is maybe five minutes long and Side B is maybe twenty minutes long.     Though in no way does this make either side better or worse, it's just an interesting sort of mindfuck I needed to make mention of because it gets me every time.

On Side B there are similar sounds to Side A, though with the illusion of more time there are added bits.   It begins with a heavy, hollow, resounding distortion boom.   It's as if someone has set off an atomic bomb, but in audio only (I hope).    Through the wind tunnel, sharp screeches go in and out, fused with laser zaps and frequency changes.     Oddly, there is also an audio clip in here as well and I just felt like Side A didn't even have the time to consider such options.

Am I going crazy?  Are my ears finally broken from listening to so much music?    While I have no diffintive answers to offer up for these questions (Though I will be going to the doctor for a check up sooner than later) I am curious if anyone else can hear this magician's trick.





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