Cassette Review // Church Shuttle "Mind Leash" (anathema archive)

$7 //
Edition of 100 //
https://anathemarchive.bandcamp.com/album/mind-leash //

Loud electronics, like distorted pong start this cassette.   It takes a loop like pinball and then some high pitched sounds join in.  The squeaky wheel gets the grease.   A lightsaber type of distortion comes in next, as this switches closer to the heavier noise like Waves Crashing Piano Chords.   These whistles take on the rhythm and this has a mechanical feel to it as well.    A slight modem feel and this is just driving and driving.   The distortion rains down as vocals can be heard speaking through it.

It's not so much about what the clicks and beeps sound like, but how they are being used within this bass distortion.    We just drop off into a sea of distortion now with a horn coming through slightly.    The static comes through like a lightsaber once again and then it begins to feel like we're changing the stations before it flickers and swarms like a bumblebee.   The frequencies change and it feels a little bit alien.   It hums like an alarm and then the voices come in.

This goes right into a classic Ric Flair promo.   The wheels continue to turn here as we slip back towards the static but are into a heavy drone.  An audio clip is in here now and it feels sci-like, like MOTU.   I'm not sure if this is sampled audio from a movie or actual content being spoken for the song but it makes me think I'm going to some darker realm, within the ideas of magic and just not being on this Earth anymore.

There is a feeling of darkness and windchimes at the same time here.    It's really just in this dark place now, where once you get there you feel trapped, like you cannot recover from it.   It's quite scary.    As it rings in an echoing way it comes to an end, as the next part begins with a sharper drone in an emergency state.   Beats slowly creep behind it all and it feels a little bit like "JAWS".    It even begins to grind those strings a little bit.

The bass begins to ring through like the toll of a clock before it drops off like Pole Position.   It whirrs on through until we hit this point of frequency alarms.  A static rustling now with a repeating beeping.    Singing comes in now.    As the beat pulsates there is some sharpness as the singing has faded.   The static rolls through now in waves.   Screeching.  A little bit Droid now.   Everything comes crashing down and then there's this solid bass line.   Crazy horns now and perhaps some radio sampling but more likely just singing in an organic way.

"I do not want to be in the center of town"  Well, that is not your choice to make.   A voicemail gets spliced in with this.   A fun whistle-slide vibe now takes one into an end, as it grows quieter.    We're back into this loud drone which sounds/feels like racecars.   It's a fading glow.   The way it all kind of fades out with the sound of the cassette itself just works so well, it just fits the sound like a glove.