[$6 // https://dorcasmorton.bandcamp.com/album/service-animal]
"Service Animal" is not only the newest cassette from DORCAS MORTON, but it is also my second time hearing him. Of course this would imply- to me- that I can kind of have an edge, feeling like I know what I'm getting into here and what to be prepared for, but within the first track that's all blown to hell and I realize that when it comes to someone such as DORCAS MORTON you must expect the unexpected. (Side Note: When I was a kid, I made many bands. One of them was called The Unexpected and their album was titled "Expect The Unexpected". Kind of cool, right?)
Side A begins with a woman talking. She kind of sounds like Kristen Schaal, but I might be biased on that right now if only because the fourth season of "Bob's Burgers" finally came to Netflix and I've been binging on it hard. She talks about how women sleep around and you eventually have to find someone to love and settle down. This is set to building beats and tones. She says she doesn't want to go on first dates forever and when I realize she is not an audio clip from a movie or the such it is because she says "Dorcas is different" and says she is ready to fall in love with him. Interesting way to start for sure, but I'll leave the dissecting of that piece to the professionals.
This is followed (as if it can ever really be followed) by pleasant tones, spoken word pieces about trees, laughing, sleepy lullaby instrumentals and just various voices. There is an audio clip (I assume) of an awards show although when it says the winner it is cut off. So it will say "And the winner for best songwriter is" and then cut off. A song that could be either "Happy Together" or They Might Be Giants comes out next and then there are tones in a lo-fi setting with whistling. A lo-fi bedroom plea for help turns into more audio clips about crowd control and then this becomes smoov elevator before the end with horns and especially that saxophone.
Side B opens with triumphant horns and the sound of water running into water so, yes, it does kind of sound like urination. Melodic singing, birds chirping and Doctor Who whirrs give life to this side as the spoken word piece here seems to be mentioning "I Sing the Body Electric". Tone loops, space whirrs and the sound of a rotarty phone. Soft trumpet gives way to typewriters. Another saxophone and then more spoken words which just tell you that if you watch movies or read books "The end is always in the beginning". I'm not sure how that applies here exactly but I will probably become more aware of it now.
"Service Animal" provides as much variety as anything else out there right now. If you can't find a piece of this to like then there is probably something terribly wrong with you. If there is a particular piece in here you don't like it's okay because it most likely won't last for that long. When you see the big picture this- and how this cassette presents itself on the whole- you have a true understanding and appreciation for DORCAS MORTON. He is not pulling together genres of music, he is creating his own genre. He is a genre now. Soon enough I will be saying "This is so DORCAS MORTON" in reviews, just you wait.
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