Cassette Review // DRAKLUA DOLPHIN "SONGS FROM THE DREAM SHORE" (KULT LIKE RECORDINGS)

$6 //
Edition of 10 //
https://drakuladolphin.bandcamp.com/album/songs-from-the-dream-shore //

This starts with that classic series of beeps I say every cassette should still have.   Guitars take us into drum machine beats and this has a definite "Double Dragon" feel to it, some sort of video game right down to the blips and bloops.    It speeds up and makes me feel like we're in race against the clock.   You know how sometimes video games used to be timed and when you had less than a minute to finish the level the sound would grow faster, more intense?   That really feels like this here.  I bet I could find this game on my old Sega Genesis system.

We switch now to a softer song, slower beats like Phil Collins and though there are some vocals it also sounds like more could come through at any time.   It is definitely dreamy as well.    This goes into a faster beat now, one with tones which are neither really electronic nor video game so I'm somewhat confused by them.    This feels like it skips as it twists, turns and then eventually reaches its end.    The next track comes out a bit darker and reminds me of "Rock Me Amadeus", but also has this sound all its own before the sax comes out.

Dreamy tones now with those slowed down vocals, like the batteries in my Walkman are dying.   Smoother now, the next song comes through with vocals but there only seem to be little bursts of the vocals scattered here and there, they don't follow the typical pattern of verses and a chorus.    The drums (or something) are very fast and choppy as a horn comes in to give off this fast paced jazz feel.   Remember that group Us3?   This feels a little bit like that.    This slows into an almost crawl, a slower western feel somehow, like we're traveling across the desert but yet it still has a strong electronic sense to it.

Horns (or tones like horns) come in and it feels like we're on some kind of drug-infused trip.   The slowed down vocals now really do make it feel as if we are stranded somewhere and tripping because it's like everything is blurry, no longer are we a part of real life.   Guitar notes come through with spoken words now (still slowed) and it feels like we're on some Willy Wonka type adventure but instead of that boat going through the tunnel from Point A to Point B, it's going all over the place, every which way like the elevator at the end of the movie.

Drums return in a punk rock way and this keeps going from being slower, more like we're tripping, to something much faster and closer to an electro-punk feel.   Though this particular song now does have a straight up punk sound to it.   Pianos sing "So much to say" and I'm reminded of some grand rock song, such as something you'd hear by The Beatles.    There is another set of beeps before the cassette ends, and I suppose that is to let you know that the side is coming to an end though I'm not sure I've heard that on cassettes in my younger years.

Record Review // Linen Closet "Linen Closet"

$18 //
https://linencloset.bandcamp.com/album/linen-closet //

Right away, from the first song "The Quick", Linen Closet brings out a lot of thoughts for me.    What starts so delicately, the plucks of strings so soft and gentle, begins to have horns (I believe a trumpet at least) as it goes on which sounds like that one indie band that kind of made it big but was also on the soundtrack to that one movie everyone has seen.  I want to say Spoon but that can't be right, can it?  Elements of Modest Mouse and strings like The Verve as well, there is a darker sense to the vocals which kind of remind me of Dead Western as well.

With starts and stops on the next song- "Act IV"- it can begin to feel as if the drums/bass, guitar and vocals are not all on the same page but somehow Linen Closet makes it work.   This has that rock sound that I found in the early '00's and not many bands have been able to recreate since.   Bands like Time Spent Driving and Eleventeen come to mind, which are bands people may or may not know but if they don't they certainly should (and maybe Linen Closet can revive some interest in those artists as well)

This can also be a little darker, somewhere between the Smoking Popes and Blue October is a good place to think of this.   Though if you want to be specific about Blue October on this comparison, I would say it falls somewhere before their album "Foiled" but also feels like something you might hear on "Approaching Normal", so do with that what you will, but yes, there is a rather specific sound in all of this dark rock for sure.   It can be dreamy, enlightening as it seems to grow with this rebirth and new sense of purpose, but at the same time it can be just as dark which makes me want to put a darkwave tag on it.

"Warning Sign" is a song which really reminds me of Blue October, though it later on can also bring about thoughts of The Honor System, and it should be noted for its lyrics, as all of these songs really should.   I particularly enjoy the lines which include the title: "Don't take this as a warning sign / Before you I was doing fine" but this is one of the most powerful songs on the entire album and a good enough reason as any for you to listen to this music, specifically on vinyl because it manages to fill a certain rock need in that aspect as well.

"Crossing the Bridge" has this combination of talking and singing within its life advice, as it seems to rock out the most when it reaches the end, and much like the bands I have previously named in this review, I don't think there is a song on here that is my favorite in the sense that each song seems to serve its own unique purpose to the album and while sometimes you might be able to take it one at a time it should be best enjoyed in its entirety.   Emotionally though this album can be a lot, like All Get Out, so you also need to choose your time when listening to it wisely.

Music Review // max lee "Colors of Noise"

https://themaxlee.bandcamp.com/album/colors-of-noise //

The music of Max Lee (who I will give the big letters to make it easier to see in this review) is not something which can be easily classified, though it does fall under that general banner of rock music.   I feel like in the 1980's and into the 1990's I was listening to certain bands on the radio, but I didn't really get into "rock music" until the mid-1990's when grunge came about.   I had, obviously, heard certain rock n roll bands of the past (like The Beatles) on the radio but never really dove into them until my later years.   While this seems highly unlikely, I feel like the music of Max Lee is a reflection of my history with rock music.

On one hand, these songs take me back to the 1990's.   They can make me think of something such as 1000 Mona Lisas or Dandelion, in the way that they feel like they maybe had one hit single on the radio but then the rest of the songs on the album are better than that song.  I still don't think there's a name for this effect but it's somewhere between Blind Melon and Flaming Lips, mainly because Blind Melon no longer makes music like a lot of the bands that still love from the 1990's and F-Lips continue to make the music and I continue to listen to it.

Other elements from the 1990's and early 2000's come into play as well though.   Unwritten Law is an artist I hear in here somewhat.   Local H and even Stroke 9 have some influence, from what I can hear.   It's that distorted rock n roll that I can't quite put my finger on and it can also take on two different faces, the first being this grunge type of face.   At the same time as that, there are songs which just sound dark, somewhat electronic and have vocals which remind me of Trent Reznor.   Yes, at times I am reminded of Nine Inch Nails (and that varies from "Head Like A Hole" to "The Fragile") as well.

I had to really listen to this one though, really let it sink in, so I could find out what I was listening to and what it reminded me of most.   At times, there are electronic sounding beats within the intense rock music.   This, to me, is some sort of combination of The Lyndsay Diaries and Escape The Fate, specifically the song "Celler Door" by ETF.   It's that feeling of this sounding like Linkin Park or Stabbing Westward, but not them just something close you can't quite put your finger on and then also that emo quality of a band like Escape The Fate as well.

The song "History" is when you will hear these two faces of Max Lee join forces.   While the songs can feel trippy, there is a certain softer electronic beat to "could be" before it just breaks down into madness.   "The Key" is this soulful rock song that just belts it out and if I had to put my finger on a song that would've been a radio hit back in 1996 that is the song I would choose.    "C U Again" can get screamy while "painted eyes" gets slower and darker.    "never going back" is an acoustic number that makes me want to hear this album Unplugged.

Once you are comfortable with the way the music can seemingly mess with your mind, combining such electronics with rock, you can really listen to the lyrics as well and fully appreciate this album.   "It's a goddamn joke / I am not alone" particularly strikes a chord with me, as I feel most artists would rather admit to being alone so it's a nice change of pace.   These songs can also be short in length (Though they all aren't) and this just makes me want to go back through and listen to them all again. 

Cassette Review // waterfront dining "Adventures in Joyland" (My Pet Flamingo)

Sold Out //
Edition of 30 //
https://mypetflamingo.bandcamp.com/album/adventures-in-joyland //

It feels like car tires screeching to a halt as we get into big synth, beats and keys, something totally out of the 1980's/1990's in that "Miami Vice"/"Beverly Hills Cop" way.    The vocals, even the words which they are singing, make me think of something from my youth with a Walkman and foam-covered headphones firmly in place.   This is certainly the soundtrack to a movie which has those same ideas between "Rocky" and "The Goonies".    Elements of this even make me think of it as being synthpop.

This takes us into a song which has some soul to it, as it feels more like R&B than pop.    It definitely reminds me of something which could've originally be on cassette and I'm thinking along the same lines as NKOTB.     This feels like it's from a different time of music, back when people knew who Tony! Toni! Toné! were.      Smooth grooves continue as the words "Now this is deja vu" are spoken.   In many ways, this cassette feels like some long lost classic from 1990 or 1991, finally being unearthed for the first time here.

Funky bass now makes me feel like we're in that era where television was ruled by "In Living Color", a simpler time when I was a lot happier.     This fun, instrumental song takes the first side to an end.   On the flip side, we have a song that could definitely have been on a soundtrack in the 1990's with similar artists in that R&B/soul genre, somewhat like Bell Biv Devoe.    This is also just a really great love song.    They don't make songs like this anymore either because the current crop of love songs are just not what I'm into and R&B seems to have taken a backseat in the world of pop as well.

There are even these spoken word bits within the singing and it reminds me of Boyz II Men.    A contemporary feel exists to this though, as if someone was trying to organically recreate the music from some thirty odd years ago but with the technology we have today it is something which can be done as there are keyboards and everything still available to get the PM Dawn sound.    The biggest thing is that, back in the 1980's and 1990's I was into so much music with the radio and Mtv that if this sounded like someone else I'd easily pick it out, but it has this combination of many of those artists while standing on its own.

Does anyone else remember Color Me Badd?  Why is this cassette making me think of them?   But that's the exact type of time frame, where you would hear a song on the radio and see the music video on Mtv (or later VH1) that this cassette reminds me of and I love that waterfront dining is doing this because it's not really being done anymore. 

Movie Review // The Other Side of the Wind (Netflix Original)

People like to say a lot of negative things about Netflix and I'm not always their biggest supporter but recently they seem to have really made it worthwhile to pay them eleven dollars a month.   There are certain series I continue watching through them (Bojack Horseman, the Marvel series, etc) and they often debut new original shows which look appealing as well.    This review is to serve, on some level, as a "Why it's okay to be paying Netflix" type of column and as I write more about films and shows exclusive to Netflix I hope you think of them in the same way.

Orson Welles, who is perhaps best known for creating "Citizen Kane", is one of my favorite directors and when I was heavily into movies between the years 2000 and 2010, I went out of my way to see all of his films because I went through a classics phase.  This movie is... It is not easily described without seeing it, and yet it can be somewhat easily described by what it is (how it came to be) and to simply use genre words I suppose.  For one thing, this movie was shot in the 1970's and it has that look of a 1970's movie to it.   If you think about the culture and society at that time, this film fits right in.

If you didn't know by now, "The Other Side of the Wind" is the final, unfinished film by Orson Welles.   I guess the best way to think of it in simple terms is that he shot a whole bunch of footage but didn't get around to piecing it together to form the film, which is essentially what was done now to bring this lost gem to light in 2018.   So I believe that this is still a lot of the voice, the vision, of Orson Welles and it hasn't been tampered with that much by modern hands or anyone else along the way.    But it's also not like Brandon Lee in "The Crow" because this sat around waiting for funding for decades.  The majority of the people involved with the making of this film are long since dead.

And wouldn't it be something for this film to win an Oscar?  It is, hands down, one of my favorite films of 2018.   It's a subtle reminder that Hollywood isn't what it used to be when Orson Welles and John Huston are back on top of it.   You feel like (at least I feel like) there should be advances in Hollywood to the point where someone coming in some- what, almost fifty years later- should feel obsolete.   If you had an idea for automobile in 1979 and it was just now seeing the light of day, no one would buy it because it would likely be too expensive and cars have just progressed, evolved over time.   Why hasn't film done the same?

"The Other Side of the Wind" follows around a director who is obviously Orson Welles but is played by John Huston and it's a wild ride to say the least.    Most of this movie serves as a documentary in that way, not just because it is Orson Welles telling his story through the character of Jake Hannaford but because it is literally people interviewing the director and following him around with cameras.   Film creates this wall between what is happening in the movie and what is real and "The Other Side of the Wind" has at least fifteen walls and will leave you speculating at every scene of what is real and what is part of the movie within the movie within the movie.

To think of this as being set in any time other than the 1970's is also a bit strange as it is an odd movie.   I like odd movies, don't get me wrong, but if you're looking for documentary of sorts that is a simple Point A to Point B type of film then this is not for you.   "The Other Side of the WInd" is a trip.   It's more like "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" than "Spinal Tap" but it remains one of the most intriguing and artistically fulfilling films I have ever seen.   Naturally, this is also my favorite line from the film:

"Gypsies, jazz and mariachis, all for a bunch of creeps who only want to listen to themselves talking"

Cassette Review // Period Bomb "Lost and Found" (Already Dead Tapes)

$6 //
Edition of 100 //
https://alreadydeadtapes.bandcamp.com/album/ad296-period-bomb-lost-and-found //

I've listened to "Lost & Found" about fifteen times now.   I even did that thing where I clicked to read more on the Bandcamp page for it (Shout out David Drucker) and found out that these songs are mostly "demos", but you wouldn't know it by listening to them.   It's weird to think of this alignment of songs as anything but intentional.   But I suppose that is the story of Period Bomb though, no?  It's that idea of making it up as you go along, but the end result just somehow makes it feel like it was your intent all along.

"Lost & Found" is not an easy cassette to digest.   If you've been listening to Period Bomb (like I've been telling you too) then you will immediately fall in love with this cassette.   Still, there is a lot going on within a lot of these songs so it can be pleasing on the surface but sometimes you have to hear certain parts enough times to full grasp the weight of them.   And I think one of the most remarkable parts of that is that often times these songs can be less than a minute but you still can't fathom everything going on in that short a time.

There is an audio clip of someone peeing, an angry voice mail message about "Where do you get off dumping your period blood on stage?" and even an anti-drugs PSA (of sorts) called "NO DRUGS".    Then you can even break it down into something simple as a line like: "My bubblegum in your hair".   I think that represents this cassette in such a large way because the act of putting gum into someone's hair is simple, a baby could do it and it takes mere seconds.   But the results, the trying to get it out of your hair and all of that which come to follow are much more complex and not for a baby to attempt.   This, in many ways, is how I feel about the music of Period Bomb (though a baby couldn't play guitar, obviously)

At times "Lost & Found" is a trippy ride into another realm.   Other times, it's this glimpse behind the scenes, a reminder that this music is made by humans, as something like the line "Do you wanna do it one more time knowing that--" cuts off at the end of a song.   And then you have a song like "Rot w/U" which is loud, screamy and reminds me of certain songs by Vandals but it also is about smoking pot.    It's not easy to put into words but it's that punk rock feeling where you felt like punk rock was being played fast because they didn't know what they were doing and Period Bomb feels like they know what they are doing but still mimic that idea somehow.

This cassette is experimental as hell.   Phone conversations about calling the van smelly and sometimes we just drop off into this instrumental sea that makes me want to do drugs but I can still appreciate while riding the bus or walking through downtown in the cold, watching people walk by in short sleeves and wondering how they're not freezing.   The song "Hot Stuff" is also on here, which was also perhaps your first introduction to Period Bomb via Already Dead, you know, if you haven't listened to them on Crass Lips like I told you to do oh so long ago.

Many artists take pieces of genres to form their own sound.  To me, Period Bomb somehow passed all of that and just skipped right ahead to forming their own genre.   You could write a book about "Lost & Found", a chapter about each song, and it would be even more substantial in five or ten years when you can point to other artists and say "This band took their whole sound from this one Period Bomb song".   You'll hear what you want in here, depending upon who influenced you, but I'm at the point now where all I hear is Period Bomb and there is no other.

Cassette Review // Xentone "Junk Science Junkyard" (Degenerate Trifecta)

$5 //
Edition of 50 //
https://degeneratetrifecta.bandcamp.com/album/junk-science-junkyard //

Fast, dancing beats begin this cassette.   There are sounds of record scratches and lasers being fired within.    It's a rather steady beat, such as something from the movie "Go".   This kicks in with claps and it takes me to some sort of sound I've never really heard before.   At one point it could've been like the movie "Go", but now it has strayed from that and evolved into a sound all its own which fascinates me.     Frequencies go back and forth and the overall sound on here shifts to what I imagine could be some sort of laser dance party.

While these might be electronic sounds I have heard before I have not quite heard them in this way.   This makes it difficult for me to describe the exact type of electronic music that this is because there isn't a strong comparison but as someone who is rather picky when it comes to electronic music (I shy away from the mainstream stuff for sure) this is refreshing to hear and I believe even the harshest of critics (of the genre on the whole) could get into it.

At times I can, obviously, feel a sense of when one song shifts to another as you can tell by its components, but as there are no real tracks listed on the Bandcamp site it is worth noting that this does have that continuous feel and I do enjoy that as well.   The way that the flow goes uninterrupted yet does not maintain the same sound for too long (which, who wouldn't grow tired of the same beat for a long time?) it even feels like a good playlist for exercising as it can climb, fill you with energy and just build you up.  (Isn't dancing a form of exercising when you really think about it?)

While it feels like everything is going in reverse but also climbing it makes me wonder how these sounds are crafted.   Can you create a rhythm, a beat and then rewind them somehow in an audio manipulation system?   That's how it sounds to me but there are not really a lot of ways to listen to audio when it's rewinding (Which does sound different than simply playing it in reverse, if you know what I mean)   This moves into a deeper bass which reminds me I need to play more video games.

There is a driving pace, a steady clapping as a horse would gallop and yet at the same time it can feel as if you're about to fall of the end of the Earth. 

The flip side starts off somewhat more ambient and then it picks up with these synths.    It moves in a way which you can sing along with.    Sharper tones make it feel a bit more haunted now, as if we are in a haunted house more than anything else.    A quieter, X-Files tone now brings back the beat.     Deeper, distorted bass now brings about some fun with it.     There is every bit of rhythm and melody on this cassette that you would find in any other genre that is capable of creating it in such a manner.   
Casio tones make me think of the Super Nintendo and how the old WWF theme songs used to sound on it.      The sound eventually grows so big it could fill an arena.   It feels triumphant, as if something we were struggling to obtain this entire time has finally become within reach.    I don't often think about the way albums come to a close, but with this cassette there is not only a feeling of closure by the end but also one of satisfaction.  This is something you might not realize you needed in music until you hear it here.

Record Review // Ricardo Dias Gomes "Aa" (Kill Shaman Records)

$16 //
Edition of 500 //
https://killshamanrecords.bandcamp.com/album/ricardo-dias-gomes-aa-lp //

Deep, distorted bass and church bells begin this record.   Words are spoken over this sound, somewhere between hip hop and the holy.    Sometimes this feels like it's droning but I believe it just to be the looping.   Isn't it funny how rock music is never accused of looping when so much of it gets repetitive?  The second track feels like we're going to take a walk on the wild side and lasers are shot in with it as well.    The beats break down, down, down and then crash.     This allows a rhythm to form which can have you get up and dance.   This has really shifted into something faster now and it makes me want to move to it.

This really grows into something more electronic but also in that island way, a lot of acoustic type of bongos seem to be coming through with the percussion.    The third track seems to have more of a piano sound and though words are still spoken, there is some singing in here as well.   It's not anything specific, but this has a general feel as if it could be something from the "Trainspotting" soundtrack, to the point where if they made a "Trainspotting 3" the only bright spot of it could be a score by Ricardo Dias Gomes.

We go into a sub-electronic sound now, which makes it feel as if we are finally floating away into space on these clouds we'd been hearing so much about on the album before this.    The final words on Side A are whispered.    Oddly this takes us into the flip side which begins with what sound like bass notes, something out of the older Nirvana back catalogue.    Singing comes in with these notes and it's the closest thing we have had to a traditional rock song on this album and I love every second of it.

While this grows distorted (even in the vocals) it gets to the point of feedback where people might find it to be too much and I feel like we've gone from Nirvana's "Bleach" to "In Utero" in a matter of seconds.     Softer sounds make me think of that Bush song "Alien" and then we go into singing and acoustic guitar plucks.     This dives into dark strings though the overall tone for the song somehow remains pleasant.    It might be as traditional as this album gets but it's a hell of a song on any level.

Though there is also this sound of crickets and drone to fade out before tones come through like a drone lullaby with vocals that could put a baby to sleep if not for the ringing behind it all, this still makes me feel a sense of calm and at ease.    As "Aa" comes to a close I feel content, a sense of being complete that I rarely feel from music or really anything in life.  One of my problems in life is that I either don't eat enough and go to sleep feeling hungry or I overeat.   Rarely do I feel that perfect balance of not wanting more food, but yet also not feeling as if I've eaten too much.  As this album closes, that feeling of perfect balance is captured completely.

Cassette Review // German Army "Vieques" (Madriguera)

$7 //
Edition of 50 //
http://submadriguera.storenvy.com/products/24217626-german-army-vieques-mdrgr-009 //

Dark electronics thunder down.    Beats are distorted as the skip and create a haunted feeling.   This somehow turns into tribal beats with western guitars and there is also singing.   I still remember the first time I heard vocals on a German Army cassette-- I was so confused because I thought it had always been (and always would be) instrumental and then I thought maybe I had missed something lately and it somehow switched over or maybe there was something I'd heard before that had vocals and just forgot.   Such is the mystery of German Army.

Tones like Pong come through on a loop with drum beats as an audio clip repeats every once in a while.  I am reminded of this Jon Cryer movie called "Hiding Out" for some reason.    Quieter, X-Files type tones come ringing through now.   There is another audio clip now, but it isn't on a loop it's just telling its story.   The sound grows with it and there is a bit of magic in it, such as that "Masters of the Universe" movie.    Though, eventually, this audio clip seems to break down into whispers, tucked away in the back it becomes harder to hear over the music and feels more like someone speaking in a crowded room where you would have to ask them to speak up or simply someone talking behind your back.

Beats now bring out ambient tones which have a great deal of bliss behind them.    Audio clips or spoken words are back once again.    This is slightly like Tears For Fears.    Hollow beats now bring about western guitar notes and it feels like we are about to get into trouble.   In some larger level, this track could have started with an audio clip simply saying "Darkness washed over The Dude" and it would have made perfect sense.     This seems to fittingly end the first side because it leaves us in a position where we have not reached a conclusion yet, as often times we feel as if the character needs to overcome this adversity.

Great guitar riffs, vocals and true beats begin the flip side.   There is a certain industrial sound in here I enjoy but in terms of industrial music it is also a bit lighter and the guitar notes pierce through a bit louder, which is an interesting twist on something you might have heard before-- equal parts The Cure, NIN and David Bowie.    Tones now come through in a sequence where wavy vocals accompany them.   It feels robotic but also oh so pleasant.   The beats really begin to stomp now.   For some reason I am also now reminded of The Wild Side.

The way the next set of beats come out makes me think that we are building blocks for some reason-- not in any particular way so much so that it feels like some sort of elaborate video game, an advanced version of Tetris on some level I suppose.   This builds and grows into one of the strongest songs on this cassette and not just because the overall weight of it feels so heavy.    The next song has a series of beats and an audio clip (or perhaps spoken word piece) on repeat.   It feels rather artsy but also like it is coming through in a serious way with one of those giant bells like you'd find in a tower on top of a church.

As beats fade from the background to the front there are these alien landing type of synths and this one grows slowly, synths so familiar we feel like we have been to this planet before and yet it remains unexplored until now somehow.    We're into this new beats loop now, which is slightly more upbeat and less feeling like we're going to be taken to some other planet to be dissected (Although this could just be the clever disguise the aliens want us to fall into so they can abduct us)  Words are being spoken in the background of all of this.   It could be that final warning from someone that we needed and if you don't understand and take it seriously you might just be next.