Friday, June 19, 2015

Cassette Review: Carbon and Soul "Opus 3: Prophets and boy-kings/how we learn stuff"


[$5 // https://carbonandsoul.bandcamp.com/album/opus-3-prophets-and-boy-kings-how-we-learn-stuff

In sporting events there exists a thing called a rubbermatch and it's when two competitors each have a win over each other their third meeting becomes the tiebreaker, if you will, the deciding factor of which is the true victor.    Well, music isn't a competition and even more so I don't think two cassettes by Carbon and Soul would compete against each other, but this is still the third cassette, the third "Opus", and as the first two were compared and contrasted it will be interesting to see what is brought out from those which came before this and how much "Opus 3" seems to just go its own direction.

Triumphant strings make their appearance first and I'm right away reminded of AWOLNATION.   There is a ringing drone, but it isn't too sharp.   A certain sense of this being the soundtrack to an old timey movie comes out, but I can't quite place what movie I would put it with only that for some reason I can imagine the old black and white episodes of "Lassie", with that dog just running and running through fields, going to get Timmy help.

A heavy strumming of either violin or cello comes in next and this just turns into a symphony.    This transforms into distorted guitar riffs which somehow recall "In The Garden Of Eden" for me.    The other strings remain in the background still and then it turns into a stranger sort of symphony feel.    Through a grinding, Transformers feel the singing guitars return and that is how we close SIde A.

On the flip side we begin with a swirling whirling.   It's a symphony, only this time it is a symphony of waves crashing.   The pace grows and the sounds begin chugging like the engine of a locomotive.    The wave drone makes its first appearance on this cassette, though it was also on "Opus 1" and the overall feeling as I am left with this just reminds me of some kind of beast.

So we get a little bit of what was on the previous two cassettes but with the strings this is just taking both of those concepts to a whole other level.   If you enjoyed "Opus 1" and "Opus 2", then "Opus 3" only seems natural by now but I do find it worth noting that you should probably not listen to "Opus 3" without having heard the ones which came before it first.   I'm not saying you absolutely have to because I'm (probably) not your dad but I am simply making the recommendation to you.   Also, once you have all three I definitely must recommend listening to them all in a row in the same sitting as well.  And by "sitting" I mean lying down.











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