Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Cassette Review: Joe Westerlund "Mojave Interlude" (Northern Spy Records)


[$7.99 // https://jwesterlund.bandcamp.com/album/mojave-interlude]

One of the first things I always like to say about cassettes- and music in general- is that when I feel it is more needed I think you should listen to this one with headphones on.   There is a lot going on and so to let it float out of your speakers and around your room would be ill advised.   You need to trap it and make sure every last ounce feeds from your ears into your brain.

Mechanical, grinding loops start things off.   There are hip-hop electronics and then some form of electronic breathing.   Loud computer crashes come through and might disturb the headphones listener but that's okay.   Spacy pinball bubbles can be heard next.   For some reason, while listening to Side A I get the overall impression that these sounds are a form of the inner workings of a clock- the gears and such moving and grinding while perhaps making amplified noises.

Percussion crashes kick off Side B.   It's screechy beeping.   Electronic birds or puppies come out next.   There is also this drama in the background, like strings or even a trumpet.   A sense of glitch brings in video game horns (whatever that means).    Screechy, free flow jazz brings about some modem glitch now.   Lasers.  Static rain.  Wavy darkness, wind chimes and/or bells and then the overall sense of a submarine bring us into the close with the sound of killer bees.

You can listen to this and kind of create your own ideas of what's going on when you hear these sounds.   It's something which you can experience through headphones and then without and having different ideas and feelings about the music.   It's just something I find so appealing because I keep finding different aspects to it each time I listen to it and I never grow bored.








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