Cassette Review: Wildebeest "AA" (PREFIX TAPES)

[$5 AUD // Edition of 25 // https://prefixtapes.bandcamp.com/album/aa]

One of my favorite parts about music is that it can be created in such a way that you cannot truly ever understand it.   Sure, there are straight forward, cut and dry songs out there and even artists that you can define so easily because they are so one dimensional.    The first time I listened to "AA" through I was under the impression that this could be some sort of noise still, perhaps what I could subgenre down to "noise rock".     Another time through, and another, and I begin to realize that this is actually not noise at all but rather some form of instrumental rock.

With guitar riffs and clicking drums there are also parts where the guitar just rattles.   First hearing these sounds may not immediately bring rock to mind, but it will get there.   The more you hear it (or perhaps since I'm pointing it out to you now) the more obvious it will become to you.   Background distortion grows in melody as it gets kind of heavy, like hard rock.   The sound begins to remind me of something closer to post rock than noise, but really I don't feel like it's either yet rather some sort of combination thus far undiscovered.

When I was a kid, I used to sit at a radio with my tape player ready to record and I'd record songs I liked off of the radio.   I'm sure that many others did the same, but the thing with me is that one of the bands I remember waiting to record most was U2.   Back when I was a pre-teen I'd not even know all these songs were by the same band.   Now, in my later years, I'm not impressed by the politics of U2.   But this does remind me of that early era U2 (Think "Where the Streets Have No Name"/"Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses") and something that might be from an album by Bush that came after "Razorblade Suitcase".

It picks up with more harmony to end Side A, as if a phoenix is rising up from the ashes, and then Side B begins with that acoustic feel to it, which reminds me of that one song I best know Monster Magnet for (I think they only had the one radio song, though I've actually seen them live for some reason) along with a little bit of Soundgarden.   Again, this is still instrumental, so it's just the music in comparison here, no vocals.    Reverb brings a lot of ringing into the front, which sounds haunting.

Whirrs take over the background with beats and then there are strings- perhaps a violin- and this ends with chugging type of sounds.   It's quite strange that at first listen it could be perceived as something that it is not, but at the same time it's not that easy to simply say "Oh yeah, this is instrumental rock" because that's such a vague term.    So a lot of understanding what this sound is comes from simply listening to it, though I can tell you that it is outstanding and unlike what you've heard before so definitely worth your time and money.