Cassette Review: mangoSleeves "Humanoid Humanoid Humanoid Humanoid, Four Humanoids" (Bumpy)

$7 //
Edition of 100 //
https://bumpy.bandcamp.com/album/humanoid-humanoid-humanoid-humanoid-four-humanoids //

While this cassette begins with songs that have synth and rock elements to them (Think Schatzi or that band that kind of sounded like them called Sic Transit Gloria, though I realize there must have been a thousand bands with that name over time) the synth does get weird rather quickly on this one.   Keys seem to be the focus though as we sometimes have vocals but sometimes don't.   I don't ever do any official sense of measuring but if I had to guess here I'd say it's something like 65/35 in terms of when there is singing and when it is instrumental but maybe 60/40 is closer to reality (60% instrumental that is to say)

The synth can drone on and then at the same time it falls into the genres of video game music, glitch, modems and just an all around electronic feel.    By the end of Side A, we have reached an instrumental song up until someone can be heard saying "No no no no".   I thought maybe this series of no's was recorded once and looped but as they come out the person can be heard coughing as well, so it feels as if each no is organic.

On the flip side we have tones which can come out like that NBC jingle, but then they break down into a seeming panic-- everything all at once.   This takes us into a slower song now, but still with these keys as I think of it as being on that merry-go-round.   These tones continue to drone as ticks come through as well and it has a nice, chill sort of Casiotone vibe to it before the pace picks back up.     There is singing now and it is quite maniacal, which we don't hear enough in music these days. 

As the vocals seem to fuse with the words now it sounds as if we are being asked where our friends are in a taunting way.   These organs have an early Marilyn Manson feel, but that's about all the comparison with that artist I can make.   As the singing returns it feels like we are in some newly discovered scene from "Willy Wonka", a forgotten song not known about until now.     This is somewhere between those crazy 1980's/1990's synths like something out of the movie "Weird Science" and being an actual mad scientist.

We dive into a bedroom sounding song now- which might be the closest we get to a traditional song since the beginning of this cassette- and it has a Daniel Johnston feel to it for sure.    According to Bandcamp, this was originally recorded back in 2008 which makes it a decade old and it is considered to be the first release by Larry Wish.    Isn't it funny how great music can be timeless?  This should, really, be your introduction to the music of Larry Wish and to that extent you don't need to worry about its age because it easily withstands the tests of time.