Cassette Review // gdg "for jacques lacan (in praise of love & lack)" ((1.8)sec.records / one point, eat records)

$6 //
https://1pt8.bandcamp.com/album/for-jacques-lacan-in-praise-of-love-lack //
🎧 //

This cassette begins with a sound as if someone is trying to put a cassette into a cassette player, though it might easily be something else but still made of plastic.   I just think of it like that because I am listening to a cassette but also I have had something similar happen to me once where I battled a cassette player designed for kids because the door on it got stuck.   It's a long story, but I do hope to repair it one day still.   Whistles come through but otherwise this is fairly minimal. 

It sounds as if a marble is stuck, rolling around inside of something now, and then these groans come out as louder bursts of air come through with them.    Then it grows deeper, darker like a bullfrog or some sort of throat singing I'm not familiar with entirely.    It's just that feeling of expansion.    Very quiet clicks and taps now, some rattling.   It has grown quite minimal.    There is almost also that sense of one of those devices they use to search for radioactive material, but you know, back in the day.

As it begins to feel like it's taking on a faint buzzing, I am reminded of why I love this type of music.   It doesn't ask for you to pay attention to it: it requires your undivided attention.  So often, we listen to songs by bands in a traditional sense and miss so much because we're just focused on singing along with the chorus, but with this, you have to be attentive of every aspect of it.

A saxophone comes screeching through now.   Loudly, it breaks any sense of minimalness you might have felt before and it probably also could wake up your neighbors if you listen to this through speakers.   Though, admittedly, as you listen through headphones it has a similar effect only it is centered on you.    A nice jolt to the ears to remind you that you're alive, these sax notes continue to blow on through, unrelenting. 

On the flip side we start with some scraping and it sounds like someone is stuck somewhere and literally trying to claw their way out.   Some kind of static but not really static whooshes through to make this feel darker.    Someone can be heard saying "Yeah yeah".   There are such quiet moments between tracks and the tape seems to drop off somehow, which it only usually does at the end of a side so how this happens in between is puzzling to me but it makes for a neat effect.

There are these points where it feels like nothing is happening, just silence, but you have to listen closely.   (Sometimes it really is silence though)   Some kind of sax being played is tucked away behind what sounds like heavy breathing.   An exhale and I feel like you can do yoga to this if you find the right pose.   It seems as if a slightly high pitched noise has snuck out in the background.   At this point, it can begin to feel so minimal that nothing is there.   You can hear a sound here and there, but mostly it just feels like silence has taken over.

Sort of taps and scrapes come through with more breathing.    Every time I feel like this cassette might be over and gone to that place of just dead air, some new sound emerges and proves me wrong.    More of that expansion feel now, such as was on Side A, but it could also be taken as a creaky wooden door opening.    There are also these little moans now which could be human.     As this cassette comes to a close I must say that for a lot of cassettes I listen to, I recommend that you use the headphones for optimal experience.   However, in this case, I would advise not listening to this in an open area and rather it should only be experienced via headphones.