[€6 // Edition of 50 // https://casaamarela.bandcamp.com/album/p-nico-ambiente ]
The first thing you should know about this cassette is that while Aires and Rui P. Andrade are two different artists, this is not a split but rather a collaboration between the two. I'm fairly certain that haven't heard either of these artists before in any other capacity, so it always interesting to me to be introduced to them in this way.
Side A begins with static and ringing whirrs. There are hints of the X-Files and sharp drone. It's melodic lightsabers and wind tunnels. Static drone can become just as sharp with a little fax modem mixed in. There are pianos in the background and the song begins to fight itself. Bliss tones come through behind sharp static. Space whirrs give way to full on static blasts which sound like ghosts in the machines. The story on Side A though is that it feels as if two forces at work against each other.
On the flip side we have some record scratching whirrs, car alarm lasers and just an overall feel of static. It's almost like a theremin is laughing at us. It grows rather sharp and then there are sonar beeps to end on. In contrast to Side A, this just seems to be a better demonstration of the two artists working together as opposed to against one another, but that might just be what I'm hearing in the music because for all I know the same artist could be making the conflicting sounds.
Regardless of which of these two artists is making which specific sounds, the fact remains that Side A does have a feel to it as if the music is at war with itself. I can't come up with a good comparison for it though. It's not as if they're two dancing partners who can't find their stride or trying to outdo each other in some musical way. It's just kind of that one is creating this sort of beauty and the other is creating controlled chaos and the two don't really gel together well.
Of course on Side B they do come together well, so it would be the two dance partners finding their rhythm or the dueling musicians finding a common ground, but I never liked that notion for Side A no matter how well it seems to work for Side B. And, you know, it's not that the two different sounds on Side A don't work together, because they do, it's just that they're somewhat opposites. The music does really work though, even if it feels like you're being pulled in two different directions at once.
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