Cassette Review: Supervolcano "Lifehater" (White Reeves Productions)

[$5 // https://whitereevesproductions.bandcamp.com/album/lifehater-wrp003]

Supervolcano sounds like the name of some movie you'd find on the Sci-Fi Channel (now known as "SyFy") late at night and watch while laughing the whole way through.   "Lifehater" pretty much speaks for itself, but it does make me think this is going to be pretty hardcore even though it doesn't actually have traces of metal in it.

"Lifehater" begins with a guitar note flurry and yet there are some tones behind it as well.   There is some strumming added in with alien sounds and it just seems like it should be a specific instrument, like an accordion or something only not.    This turns 8bit in a faster paced way, some video game from the Super Mario Bros. era I cannot place, and then the 8bit slows down a little bit but still projects feelings of bliss.

A sharp, almost Hitchcock type of glitch tone comes out next, almost as if someone fell asleep on their car horn even, and then this turns into pleasant tones with some scraping in the background.   There are horns or strings within the 8bit now which has been reduced mainly to just a hum.   Transformers/robot sounds come out next, which aren't really words being spoken in that way but rather just the sense you'd get from hearing two robots communicating.

A glitch loop with this sort of frog croaking I don't know what sound in the background that goes "whuh-whuh-whuh-whut", yet also going back to the 8bit reminds me of Mario either growing or shrinking, takes hold until the end.    Glass tones and keys of some kind are added into the mix though it just maintains that seemingly neverending loop of something.

Interestingly enough, Side B is the same as Side A except the song order is reversed and this does make for quite an interesting listen.    Not only does this offer you somewhat of an additional album but it gives you the chance to contrast and compare the two pieces in their opposite orders.   (I once told someone their album would sound better if the tracklisting was reversed and they seemed to only give me that polite/offended type of response)

Regardless of the back and forth of this all, Supervolcano just creates a cassette full of sounds that are not quite like anything I've ever heard before but do have that similar sound.    I think it just takes that from the beginning as well, where I feel like the sounds should all be coming from one instrument I'm simply not aware of but yet I somewhat know deep down inside it really is just that combination of sounds.    Music has to have its roots somewhere and I feel like Supervolcano is not so much playing music as creating music itself.