[$5 // Edition of 60 // https://kerchowrecords.bandcamp.com/album/mystery-series-1]
Having a mystery cassette for whatever reason makes me think of that age old question: if you could know when you were going to die, would you want to? I feel like if I knew it would feel like this constant ticking and you'd never feel like you could do all you wanted so you'd spend a lot of time picking and choosing, where as if you don't know and just make the most of every day you'll live a fuller life. My point in all of this is that if you had to pick the certainty versus the mystery in the grand scheme of things with life and death, I'd have to go with the mystery. I feel like most people would also be drawn to the mystery and hence drawn to this cassette as well, for that unknown reason.
Now, some labels out there like to do "mystery deals" and even the Disney Movie Club has a deal where you can cash in points for a mystery Blu-Ray, but in that scenario you could just get like, Chicken fucking Little or some shit and feel like you wasted your points. Though those scenarios claim to by "mysteries" you still have that sense of what it might actually be, especially when you have a label that's released, say, 30 cassettes and they want to send you three of them at random for a discounted price. This cassette on Kerchow! Records is a mystery in the purest sense of the word.
I've always felt like someone widely known as a musician- a Jack White type if you will- should go and create some music but not attach their name to it and see what the critics said. I also think sometimes about whether or not I'm listening to music on Bandcamp if it sounds like an artist because they have done just that and I'm about to give them a bad review even though they're someone I really admire. Who knows, but it does add another level to what this cassette could be about.
On one hand, Kerchow! Records is run by a musician and to think it could simply be created as such could be one theory. Then you can also just imagine some of the other musicians who seem to be on the label quite often and think of it as possibly being them or some combination. Like, did someone like BBJr. come through town and this a collaboration between him and Restaurnaut? Or is there something similar going on? But then you never know who could come through town and record this with who else and make this type of music. So the mystery in here does make this appealing.
From loops of samples to electronics to guitars this is fairly vague in its delivery yet seems to create a pattern which you can eventually follow. I know for a while that it felt like no one quite knew who German Army was- and I'm not sure whether or not anyone does yet- but I like that when you have instrumental music especially you can create that anonymity because it takes away from things such as gender and race and just makes it all about the music. No "Well you should like this because you like their previous releases" when you don't know who it is, so you just get to listen to it and enjoy it for what it is on its pure merits.
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