Friday, September 23, 2016

Cassette Review: BICIKL "Chertamy | Ryazamy" (The Centipede Farm)


[$6 // Edition of 100 // https://centipedefarm.bandcamp.com/album/chertamy-i-ryazamy]

Cassettes like this one make me glad we have the internet at our disposal because if not I wouldn't have been able to read much less type the words on this artwork for you to give you an artist name and title.   Luckily, I can associate the pictures like I'm in Kindergarten and then take such key ideas from the Centipede Farm Bandcamp page.   But, on the other hand I think about things like what would it be like if the internet did not exist, or at least not in this capacity?   Could you imagine me trying to put this in my 'zine somehow?   I'd likely just put in a photo and say how I have no idea what to call this and nothing about it is a language that I know.

Wind chimes ring but it might be bells and there are these sort of vocals off in the distance to start things off.   Beats come out and then those steel drums make their appearance as well.   It's tribal, like a snake-charmer perhaps, and then it somehow turns into these western guitars as if we're going to go into "Rango" or a more serious movie of that nature (such as one of the movies which it parodies).    We then take a turn into a distinct television soundtrack, like one of those shows from the 1980's or 1990's.   I want to say "The A Team" but I'm really thinking more along the lines of "Thunder In Paradise"-- remember when Hulk Hogan had hair and drove a boat a lot for some reason?

The television idea though can also resemble "Doctor Who" before we turn into this Blue October feel where it's kind of mellow with strings, yet also kind of dark like it's a place you don't want to often go but when you're there you don't mind staying.   This somehow takes on this 90210 type of 1990's guitar work before that crazy sax comes out and makes me wish more people embraced the 1990's/1980's sax style of album titles where the word "sex" is replaced by "sax".    Locust type whirrs come through next and then these sort of vocals come out as well, only there are electronics and the vocals are kind of chopped up.   It just continues to grow wild, intensify and build until it just sort of seems to explode to end Side A.

After checking with the Bandcamp page I found that Side B of this cassette picks up at the fifth song.   Percussion takes us into this Indian sort of vibe and I'm not sure why but all I can think of is that marketplace in the Indiana Jones movie where the guy does fancy sword-work and Indy just shoots him.   It just has that sort of feeling to me, but what can I say, I'm a white boy who has never been outside of the United States.   Someone should pay for me to travel the world so I can use more specific references to other places.    In any case, there are words like a conversation coming through as well.

The saxophone takes on a different tone now and the music is still banging before it descends into these acoustic guitar melodies.     The notes take us into the end and what I like most about this cassette is the complexity of it although it feels like it could all take place in the same destination.   It's one of those situations where I feel like you could listen to it a thousand times and create a thousand different stories in your mind each time.   Which is why I kind of feel like what I'm writing might be pointless because what I hear might not be what you hear even though my point is this is still that trip you should take.








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