Cassette Review // Tom Terrien "Be Glad" (Youngbloods)

$5 //
Edition of 100 //
https://tomterrien.bandcamp.com/album/be-glad // 

A wild piano ringing sound begins this cassette.   It then drops off into distorted beats and there are even these growls like vocals you can make out in the background.   It maintains some of that harmony from the pianos but also just feels like it could turn into a much darker electronic sound at any point-- somewhere between The Prodigy and Fire-Toolz with hints of video games.

There is a certain level of distressed ohms as well, like we're in trouble somehow before the static kicks in with the fade of distortion turning into that sharpness.   Somewhat trippy video game beats begin the next song and it feels upbeat in a way but there is also this sense of running around in a video game on a time limit with these R2D2 beeps and boops as well.

Vocals seem to come through but only for a brief moment and then it dives into this fast paced electronic bliss which is just so much fun.    What I feel like most about this is something like Tetris, but at the same time it could be a fighting game, like TMNT arcade style.   Of course this all drops off into some smooth grooves, like jazz or instrumental hip-hop.  Such wild tones and loops now. 

Slip beats take us into more droid electronics and then the pianos come out, grand.  Big synths feel like we're driving, like Yves Malone, but there are these funky beats in here as well and it's just so cool.   A sound like a jackhammer ends that song and we start into this piano riff with beats ala 2Pac's "Changes".    There is still this all too commanding video game feel to it though, like Double Dragon now.

We slowly come back into those pianos and then the beats just come through all wild like things are crashing.   While it has a strong video game glitch vibe to it, that isn't really a fair take on it so much because there is still this rhythm to it which makes me feel like it isn't really glitch at all.   It sounds like bells now too, like the xylophone, and this just takes on such a wild ride.

Quieter tones come through now, a little sharply, and things just have this alien way about them as this next song starts up.   Vocals come through now but it's like they're chopped up and put in this loop where they kind of make sense and they kind of don't.   Sounds kind of like strings (a violin?) but also the radio changing come through now and the static does that video game kind of glitch thing again as well.

Darker piano notes now come in solo and feel like we're going into a ballad.   It maintains that pure piano sound and it has this nice feel to it, though sometimes it kind of twists and turns which might be the tape more than the song itself but I still dig it.   Even quieter, more minimal tings come through now with these darker synths like from some sort of underwater organ.    This feeling builds more intense and eventually kind of waves out before we get into these commanding piano keys.

Pieces of vocals come through as it grows louder once again and this just has that perfect balance between loud and soft, fast and slow, electronic and hip hop and just the other vibes you would come to expect based upon how I've described it up until here.   It's that feeling of the "Run Lola Run" soundtrack mixed with "Trainspotting" (shout out Underworld) and a little bit of "Resident Evil", which maybe shouldn't all be together but this just works.