Cassette Review // Qoheleth "Black Kite Broadcasts" (Bad Cake Records)

Edition of 25 //
$7 //
https://qohelethnoise.bandcamp.com/album/black-kite-broadcasts //

This cassette begins with an introduction to imply we are listening to a radio broadcast from the future.    In between songs, this idea returns as songs are given titles and different artists representing them.   The overall sound is one of thrash rock.   It's somewhere between hardcore and metal, somewhere between Suicidal Tendencies and Motorhead.   At one point, it sounds like the vocals could be coming from a professional wrestler back in the 1980's because it's a similar style as to someone in the days of Randy Savage and Ultimate Warrior would've cut a promo.

Some people think the louder and faster you play the less talented you are.    "HWY 666" (by The Fear and Loathings) is an example that when you slow things down you can really begin to hear the amount of raw talent which goes into crafting these songs, no matter the speed at which they are played.    At one point, which is actually a track called "It's been three years...", it is revealed that what caused this apocalypse of sorts was called the Black Kite Plague (Which I want to know more about) and it had been 951 days so things are not looking so good but at least Fix Triscuit has these tunes to keep him sane.

"The Sublime Pungence of Drumpf" by Meat Disguise is as fast and crazy as "Exquisitely Dressed, and Caked in Blood" by Terry Falspell in slower and could potentially drive you to madness.     It has that feel of an unreleased Nirvana song because it's somewhere between "Nevermind" and "In Utero", so maybe it would've been a demo left off of either of those albums but more likely something which would have come on an album after "In Utero" I'd say. 

Is it odd that 14 of these 20 songs are on the first side?  Not to me.  I've seen it where you would have 19 songs on Side A and one long final song on Side B, so I suppose nothing really surprises me anymore and you just have to go with it.    Splat Robertson kicks off Side B with a song called "Toxic Waste Buzzkill" and it's as loud and somehow reminds me of the Toxic Avenger so the name really fits the song.     H.R. Giger Counter has a sea of distortion with beeps that creates a definite grunge feel.   Somehow, this goes straight into another song without a bumper.

Cracklin' Graham Cracker has a sound similar to it of The Doors but it might also be that it feels that way because we are nearing the end of not only the cassette but of all life as we know it as well.    The last transmission from the radio station has sirens in it and then we go into this dead air type of drone feel.    Guitar chords come crunching through and this is somehow post apocalyptic rock, which feels like it should somehow be able to be shortened to something else but I'm not going to try that.

Buzzing like a swarm of electronic bees comes through.   People can be heard talking as if there is a field recording in here.   I begin to think I hear bagpipes for some reason.     Guitars thunder through and there is a lot of static.    Words can be heard spoken during the end and then it sort of whooshes off into space.     As far as this cassette goes in terms of sounding like a radio broadcast from the future, it is among one of the best.  I wish more artists would do things like this, even just to mix up compilations, but that should be your sign that Qoheleth is not like most artists and is creating at their own level.