Tuesday, October 17, 2017

Cassette Review: Cancer Lake / Bullshit Market (Personal Archives)


The way this cassette is presented I feel like Bullshit Market should be Side B but this is was how it was rewound so here we go.   This begins with a loud burst of static.    There are some frequency type sounds and then an audio clip is spliced in because I hear someone talking.    He knows you don't have a scale.   This goes back into this haunted distortion sound.    While the static has the normal distorted wall sound you'd expect there is this element of technology mixed with it somehow.  I can't explain it, but it is quite fun.

There is sort of screaming at this point and it sounds less like an audio clip and more like the artist being pissed off.    This might be an audio clip disguised as vocals, but regardless, the anger within it coupled with the music is spot on.     This turns into that sharp feedback like "In Utero" and there are vocals spliced into it all but they are twisted somehow.    I'm not sure if the words are being spoken because the person is being killed by technology or if they are the technology doing the killing.  

More words have me thinking of an audio clip but the thing with this piece now is that these might all be audio clips, they might all be spoken word vocals or they might be some combination.   The fact that I cannot tell is what makes their placement so remarkable.    While it would be nice to sit down and point out "That's an audio clip" and "That's spoken word vocals" or just be told that they are all either one or the other, I like the mystery behind it.   I like not knowing.   The times when I most think they could be vocals are perhaps when they are not or vice versa and that's how I like for it to remain.

Cancer Lake is an artist I know thanks to Centipede Farmer and as a "This will likely only be funny to me" type of story, I was listening to this split cassette and taking notes during the same time as a cassette from Crown Larks and so it became funny to me (but not haha funny) that both these artists are abbreviated "CL" in my notes but are so different.    This side (which could be "Side A", but when you have a split I don't think it matters and just see it as "CL Side" and "BSM Side") begins with these fast paced drums that have a punk feel to them with an audio clip about trash mixed in.    It's actually Danny Devito from "It's Always Sunny", for those wondering, but it has a more distinct audio clip feel than BSM did.  

Cymbal crashes, guitars and screamy vocals come out.   This is like that hardcore thrash feel of Converge only the songs are shorter.   I remember listening to so much great music like this back in the day and I really do miss it.  (It has actually inspired me to go look up and listen to Ed Gein again)    There is also this band this reminds me of- if you've never heard of them you should- called Puig Destroyer and, no, that "u" is not a typo.    A stronger static feel comes through now and then the vocals begin to sound as if they are possessed by a demon.   If only they'd start speaking in tongues we could raise the holy one.  

The music has the same qualities but slows down a little bit here.   Then it begins to pick back up and once again make me feel nostalgic for Black Market Industries.  (I feel I still have a sampler CD of them somewhere)  "You can crush me but you can't crush my spirit... Ahhh my spirit!!"   Classic Futurama right there.    This goes into an instrumental stretch and sort of slows down before another audio clip and then the pace picks back up.  

What I feel like this split does is it has two similar styles of music together but yet they aren't exactly the same.   Listening to BSM would be like watching a horror movie such as "Pulse", where as Cancer Lake is more like "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" (Just to use horror movies I think everyone has heard of as an example)   But, yes, I'd not heard Bullshit Market before but am glad that I did and now that I've been reminded of Cancer Lake I will look further into their music on Bandcamp as well-- like a good split should make you do.


$5 // Edition of 50 // https://personalarchives.bandcamp.com/album/c24-split







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