Cassette Review // tendencyitis "microdebris" (dubbed tapes)

£4 //
Edition of 30 //
https://dubbedtapes.bandcamp.com/album/microdebris //

Tones which can feel like they are glitching come through blissed out and sharp at the same time.  There are these static bursts behind it, small scrapes, and overall it just has this sharp ringing quality to it.   It all seems to come to a head as it hits this one note and then cuts off like unplugging an amp.

Higher notes come through now, more like drone but in a way which can also blare and possibly bother your ears.  It's not the harshest I've ever heard in terms of high frequencies, but it's definitely up there.    Video game type synth also appears within the background of this all as well.

The tones go back and forth, higher and sharper, deeper and lower, climbing up that cliff and then dropping right off of it.   Sometimes the way the notes can be pressed down together on the keyboard (I'm assuming) can sound like an error, an alarm in a sense which is to warn us of doing something which we are not supposed to be doing. 

It seems to drone now, only changing tones slightly and this is definitely something played loudly enough would drive the neighbors crazy.   It drives off into this static like electric frequency, but remains so high pitched as to potentially alert any dogs who happen to be around me or anyone listening to this at the time.     There is a strong feeling of a dialtone here as well, as this song comes to an end.

More dramatically now, we build up these next tones with some suspense and they are less sharp than before.    The high pitch returns in a new layer and this one is just droning like glass.    Listening to this particular part now just really makes me feel like I'm being put into a trance, you know, like an old sci-fi movie shooting that classic raygun at an alien who really just looks like a slightly different color human because you couldn't really see the colors in black and white.    This ends with a little bit of that outside traffic noise that we like to hear from Dubbed.

Darker, rippling synth kicks off the flip side and it just feels like we're somewhere between Star Wars and some sort of fiery electric doom.   It continues in this almost video game-like pattern through these synths and it has this warped sense of "Pole Position" about it.     There is just such a strong vibe to this part though.    It sounds like fluid, but it comes off so solid.    This also seems to be the entire Side B and it reminds me of "Alien" for some reason as well.

Some sharpness with this mechanical rhythm building to a beat is what happens when this all changes up.   Somewhere between an alarm and hip hop could be the best way to describe this and what is an alarm really but minimal hip hop anyway?  In ways it reminds me of jumping on a trampoline as well, which sounds strange in regards to sound but this is where we are now.   More ripping static and then alien whirrs bring this one to a fitting end.