Cassette Review: wrtch "Guilt Of Man" (dubbed tapes)

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Edition of 50 //
https://dubbedtapes.bandcamp.com/album/guilt-of-man //


These are actually dubbed- artwork and all- over existing cassettes which in many ways you can still see underneath.   If you look at the photos on Bandcamp you will see the Bryan Adams dubbed over cassette version I have which is pretty cool because, hey, Bryan Adams, right?   I've always wondered if there was a way though to kind of splice your sounds within the sounds of the original source.  I feel like I heard some of that on Crass Lips Records cassettes but I don't know how appropriate it would be with an artist such as wrtch.

What can be described as electronic glitching starts this off with these tapping beats.   Hollow glass tones come through with footsteps.   All these sounds seem to layer over one another as shots are fired into space now.    Some of these sounds fade as the vocals of Ambrosia Bartośekulva come through softly at first, then much more powerfully.   The music seems to take us into a void and it begins to feel haunted.    I can hear the ghosts come through as the vocals fade and this has this skip quality to it I feel is best experienced through cassette.

Vocals return into the background of this song but I can't describe how they sound.   It's not quite speaking in tongues, but they don't sound like they are using full words or it could be that the words are chopped up and mixed up to form some sort of odd vocal pattern.   Regardless, it just fuels my belief that this is haunted in a way and I don't think it's something you'd want to listen to before going to sleep unless you wanted nightmares, but hey, who am I to say that you don't want nightmares?

Lighter tones kick things off on the flip side for "Virgin Flesh Genocide" and the vocals have returned.   This is somewhat more angelic now than it is haunted.   The music feels more uplifting, as if we are being taken up to Heaven than it does feel like something is about to scare me in the dark.     These twisted vocals bring about bursts of static.    The windstorm feel brings us into some screeches and squeals which again are all sounds I find to be best experienced through cassette.    Sharper sounds do come through as well, which make me feel like ghouls are trapped inside of technology.

When looking up wrtch on Discogs, I found that not only has Ambrosia Bartośekulva been a part of Stalebirth (Motherfuck(her) review here), but there exists a cassette called "Rabbit Holes [And Other Exits]" which was self-released.   There used to be a Bandcamp link for it, but the wrtch.bandcamp.com site no longer appears to be valid.   If anyone can link me up to a copy of "Rabbit Holes [And Other Exits]" it'd be greatly appreciated.   But the link between this cassette and Stalebirth is just something you cannot plan and makes music all that more magical.