Cassette Review: Chiaro Scuro "Tort Reform" (Sewer Mutant Records)

[$5 // Edition of 25 // https://chiaroscuro1.bandcamp.com/album/tort-reform]

While this might be my first time listening to Chiaro Scuro I am interested in hearing them if only because the label that they are on is Sewer Mutant and that can make me think of only two things: "Futurama" and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.     Oh, and Morlocks.   Don't forget the Morlocks.    So, for me, on some level I like to think going in that this is going to be the type of music made by Morlocks and that's kind of cool.

"Tort Reform" begins with a long bass drone.    This changes ever so slightly as it goes on and then there is a hum and crackling.   Sonic booms of doom come into play next and we're taken into frequency changes as well.    From scraping this turns into the sound of intergalactic insects.   The sound of an alien hatching is played on a loop.    We end up in a static wind tunnel and for some reason this particular one makes me think of a car wash.    Dark string synth transitions into electro shock static and howling, which is how Side A ends.

On the flip side we begin with a full on static blast.    There is muffled robot talking inside of this and it can only be vaguely heard but vaguely is good enough.   Beeping.  Crackling static waves.   Sharpness.   An audio clip comes on.   There is this glitch bass beat that beeps on repeat and I can't quite explain it because it isn't quite an alarm.    Somehow, as it grows it manages to get distorted.    Fits of static bursts come in.    That alien sound from Side A returns.    And this ends on an audio clip talking about taking the top off.

Aside from that last audio clip, which is obviously a human speaking, I tend to find the general vibe of this cassette to be one found in space.    If you believe that life exists outside of that on earth then there could be most any number of species out there that simply haven't been discovered yet.

Since they are not from earth they would be alien, but I imagine this as being the sounds of some sort of robotic bugs that are communicating with each other, possibly even planning to take over the earth.    Though I like the idea of these insects being sized the same as ours (like the way Cobra Commander spies as a robotic fly on a wall) I imagine them much bigger than humans so as to seem more threatening.

But, you see, the thing is, these robot bugs aren't an entire race or species the way you think of Transformers but rather were built by an alien race who sent them to earth.  So yeah, giant robot bugs are frightening and all that but you also have to wonder who or what is behind them (who created them) when the invasion comes down.