Friday, June 1, 2018

Cassette Review: Caligan Memorial "Caligan Memorial" (Moon Villain)


$5 //
http://moonvillain.com/album/caligan-memorial //

A slight ringing slides some distortion in to begin this cassette.  It comes through in waves and has a definite outerspace vibe to it as well.    If you listen to this one while stargazing then you're doing it right.    Atmospheric and yet hollow, some softer alien whirrs come through now.    While it is ringing, it also kind of sneaks in with the waves and can present a somewhat eerie feeling in that sense.   There are alien tones, yes, but it also feels like a movie where we are lost in the woods and the leaves rustle to where you begin to wonder if it's just the wind.

Guitar twang comes in next and this begins painting a much clearer picture.    Frequency whirrs come in with this bass-filled drone and it sounds as if we're going to change the radio stations up a bit before we just drone off into the darkness of space and time.   As the waves crash through in a shifting sense, there is this hum, this buzzing as well.    Some sharpness comes through now as well and the first time I listened to this I thought it was perhaps my earbuds making that sound but it turns out when played through speakers that it is not.

We whirr through the frequencies, through the hollow void in hopes of finding our way out perhaps, but I don't mind being lonely so I'll stay here for as long as I can.   Guitars (I think) come through like whistles and then it feels like pianos are being struck as well.    This really descends into madness now, as it has a slight sharpness to it, definite pianos I believe and just this overall feeling of darkness but less sad and more dangerous, unpredictable.    It might not exactly be guitars here, but it is some sort of dark strings, perhaps a cello, as the piano chimes as if time is running out.    Voices can be heard coming through this all before we reach the end of Side A.

Louder, glowing hues begin the flip side.    It gets darker, hollow, and then the space lasers come in slightly as well.    This stays somewhere between the grounds of electronic and mystical now.    There is still this deep space sound to it- like we are in space but in an area which has previously been unexplored- and to an extent this does remind me of the sounds from Side A.   It's this somewhat ringing, somewhat droning idea of being in space.   But it's just droning, like when you look out somewhere really flat and can just see for miles and miles and miles.

While it can get a little bit windy and the tones can drop down (change frequencies ever so slightly) for the most part this is just drifting and drifting as ambient drone.    Vocals are coming through now but it's in a robotic way.   They sound like they could be transmissions from space, as they have that drive-thru feel where some words are easier to pick up on than others.     This is, perhaps, one of the other ways it does seem to resemble the other side- there are words spoken but only when it gets right up near the end- but otherwise this just feels more like a traditional drone while we previously heard what was more of a complicated drone and perhaps even not a drone at all.   Still, you should be listening to each side and gaining your own experiences with them.








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