Cassette Review: Yahowa "Forest Moon EP" (Knife Tapes)

[$5 // Edition of 50 // https://knifetapes.bandcamp.com/album/forest-moon-ep]

The music of Yahowa can be described in a number of different ways but the best way for me to generalize it is to simply say that back when I first started reviewing music again (I took a hiatus) and heard the compilations released by When the Sun Hits, I would expect to hear one of these Yahowa songs on one of those.   In fact, if you told me that Yahowa had been a part of something that WTSH did and I simply overlooked it up until this point it wouldn't surprise me in the least because not only are Yahowa that good but they emulate that sound.

From the first side- which is comprised of two songs- you can hear a dark, echoing, new wave type of sound that I might even dare say crosses over into darkwave.   There is a little bit of psych and it just feels like something that comes straight out of the 1980's-- something you would have originally heard on cassette and cassette alone.    Elements of Talking Heads come out and not just because I can hear "Burning Down the House".    For all of its flashback to greatness there is just as much modern -gaze to be found within these two songs that I put at being somewhere between Joy Division and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.

On the flip side there are two other songs which begin with a trace of Metric musically.   Words are spoken during the first song in an almost singing type of manner and the music itself grows into something closer to Duran Duran just as well.   The second song has spoken words but they are even further from singing than the previous track and they feel like they're almost some sort of audio clip.   Church organs come out a little bit sharply and there is some pure elements of psych in here that simply cannot be denied.

For four songs this is an EP that is hard to deny and based upon the fact that it has a modern feel to it but still can be best traced back to the time when the cassette replaced the record I can only tell you that this is best experienced on cassette.   If this wasn't available as a cassette and I heard it through some other means I would send it to a cassette myself for my listening pleasure-- I feel that strongly about it.    The music is solid for those fans of Screen Vinyl Image, Presents for Sally, umm... I'm just name-dropping friends now, so you get the idea.   Music best listened to on cassette and amazingly stellar.   Must have.