[$5 // Edition of 30 // https://4fctrl.bandcamp.com/album/4-008-greater-escapes]
Listening to these cassettes by Logan Archer has been like hearing his musical evolution. What started without any vocals and was ambient grew into something of that singer/songwriter feel and now we have "Greater Escapes" which has a full band feel on many of the songs. It's that lo-fi bedroom pop rock that you've come to know and love from the cassette as a genre, but yet it is also just so much more.
Hints of garage, skipping casio tones and harmonica can come into play on these songs. There is a dreamy, Porno for Pyros type of psychedelic feel at one point and at another the soft plucking of the acoustic guitar strings reminds me of Weezer's "Butterfly". Musically, in its very core, "Greater Escapes" seems to fall somewhere between Neil Young and EFS. But since this is the third cassette by Logan Archer it is easy enough to put him into his own genre and apply what we have heard before to help him with the formation of a sound unique to him.
Now, Logan Archer could have made three releases in a row that were all instrumental and ambient, such as the case of "Charts/Memories". Or all three of these cassettes could have been like "Cycles" for that matter. But the fact that "Greater Escapes" shows this sort of growth doesn't really make me feel like he's trying to cover all of his bases or just make different type of cassette music, but rather it makes me feel like he is unpredictable-- Logan Archer refuses to be pinned down to any singular genre.
It is in this way that, much like with Stars Are Insane (another favorite of mine), you are not sure what will happen on the next Logan Archer release. He does have one posted to his Bandcamp, though as far as I know it is not on cassette yet, but the fact that Logan Archer seems to refuse to fall into a pattern is a testament to his talent as an artist and also the very fiber of what makes each of these cassettes so essential.
Often times, I feel like when an artist releases new music it's just more of the same. You know, similar patterns but just different words and themes to the songs. You can pull nearly any musician off the radio and listen to more than one of their full lengths to be proven of this. Never really knowing what you're going to get with Logan Archer is about as certain as the fact that you can bet it's going to be good. And in this current state of music that's a lot to ask for so when it is handed to you start appreciating it.
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