Cassette Review // Mu Vonz "Mu Vonz" (Already Dead Tapes)

$5 //
Edition of 60 //
https://alreadydeadtapes.bandcamp.com/album/ad285-mu-vonz-mu-vonz //

The first thing I notice about this cassette are the drum machine beats.   There is singing and it sounds like some cross between Beck and Primitive Radio Gods at first.   It has a certain groove to it as well, which also makes me think of taking a walk on the wild side like Lou Reed.   Talking takes us into the second song, which has the line about how "the guests could keep leaving", which I'm in favor of", and with the keys I'm beginning to think of this as something closer to bedroom pop and yet for some reason I also sense a bit of surf in here as well.  (If you've never listened to those "Music For Our Mother Ocean" compilations you totally should and I think Mu Vonz would fit in well on one of them)

As we hear "Let's go make a fire" there is really kind of like "X-Files" feels but also hip hop somehow.  There is more of an 80s synthwave feel than any other song so far on here and louder, more serious beats start into something somewhat trippy now.   There is a sense of AWOLNATION as "Maybe I just wanna be" comes out and by the end of Side A we're hearing that title of "No Space" repeated over and over again as well.

On the flip side there is singing mixed with speaking over the music.   "Mother Earth called, she said she wants her trees back".    I enjoy the lyrics on here just as much as the music itself.   There is just this smooth, sort of cool vibe to it as well, which I can't quite put my finger on because, I mean, who else can you really compare with both Lou Reed and hip hop?  It's just this steady pace, not too fast and not too slow, which maybe I would call chillwave but it does really feel like Mu Vonz is created a style which can only be attributed to Mu Vonz and perhaps more importantly a rhythm which goes with that as well.

To some extent, I also like to think this could be vaporwave but not in the strict sense but more in the way that it pulls elements from vaporwave to combine with these other sounds.   If you can take that into consideration, then you'll understand how sometimes vaporwave can have those hip hop aspects to it and I feel that comes into play here.   Though, still, everything chill and some forms of -wave do come out just as well.   I feel like one of the most difficult parts of putting this into a genre (or crossing genres) is that it doesn't have a sense of time either.   This could be from the 1990's or modern-- it's just timeless in that sense, which makes it all that much better.