Cassette Review: Rudy Stone "RSX"

[$5 // http://rudystoned.com/album/rsx]

Rudy Stone has created a cassette of four songs that feels like what other artists might consider to be an entire album.   With celestial whirrs there are moments when we travel straight into space.   There is a drum machine and singing, but at times I also think that it is psychedelic.    Though I've stated numerous times before that the term "shoegaze" has been far overused these past few years by artists who are simply anything but, I wouldn't object to calling Rudy Stone spacegaze.   Through pretty notes, this also reminds me of Pink Floyd as well, which is kind of a strange place to land after thinking of something modern at first.

Guitars strum through complex rhythms and it is just overall chill.  (But I wouldn't call it "chillwave" and I don't want to mess with the magic in creating subgenres to try and call it "chillgaze" but that might also work)  I'm reminded of The Who's "Behind Blue Eyes" and not just in the softer melodies but in the overall tone of the way in which the music presents itself-- so innocent, so unassuming.    It's somewhat Velvet Underground but also somewhat of the darker melodies of EFS just as well.    Just imagine any number of good things rolled into one to create an entirely new good thing.

One thing that I keep going back to and thinking about these songs though is that however much you try to find someone to compare them with in the sense of current music, you'll almost always find yourself going back to one of the great artists of the past.   It's not often that someone can tie the two together so well, but it certainly does display how well Rudy Stone has managed to capture time within these songs themselves.   I like to think of songs as a representation of an artist's influences and as such much of it does depend upon the past.

Rudy Stone shows that past here, but also leaves you with that feeling that he is sort of nodding towards the future.  I'm not even sure I've heard an artist do it quite like this, but these songs by Rudy Stone are certainy worth a listen and, yes, being on cassette does make them that much better as well.