Cassette Review // HURRICANE PARTY "Juice" (Hello L.A.)

€8.99 //
Edition of 100 //
http://store.hellola-hellola.com/product/hurricane-party-juice/ //

This one starts off with rocking beats and it just feels like, well, a party.    I can't quite place what it reminds me of with the singing.   Is it Linkin Park without the screaming?  Maybe that one band who had that song about a butterfly?  Is there a proper way to compare this with another artist because I'm not sure I've heard anything with this much drive and soul before.   And then the rapping comes in and this is just everything we need in music right now.   The energy.  The instruments.   All of it.

One way I like to think about bands is in the sense that if HURRICANE PARTY was to go on tour with a well known act who would it be-- sometimes that helps you get an idea of what they sound like.   I'd have to think of someone between Fatboy Slim and Twenty One Pilots, which feels like a broad brush of genres, but still, the idea remains that you want to have someone with a similar vibe even though one rule of touring is always not to have a headliner who will be outdone by the opener.

I also really enjoy that HURRICANE PARTY has a song called "Hurricane Party!!"  because a little bit of self promotion in that sense is never bad.   There is this song also which sounds kind of like The Beatles but also some kind of indie rock band kind of like Matt Berry, which is basically saying that "I'm all right" and that's an interesting message to hear in music these days because people don't seem to want to be positive anymore.   Then it perfectly breaks into a rap.

While I feel like I hear artists similar to this once in a while (since I've been writing about music back in 1999 I can only say I've heard two artists which come close to this: 2 Skinnee J's and Kottonmouth Kings) they have been few and far between and that is why I think I like this cassette so much.   It takes me back to when I was younger but also just makes me wish more people were creating music this great that I could have just banged in my trunk in my formative teenage years.

There is also this aspect of these songs, specifically found on "Space Mountain", where it just feels fun because they're singing about having fun.   When was the last time you heard music that felt fun but also wasn't overly catchy and annoying?  I really think this world needs more fun music, especially now in light of all the things going on that aren't fun. 

On the flip side we open with beats and the soothing vocals of Pink Chlorine before the whole thing kicks in and, yeah, it's still a party.   With great guitar riffs this can even feel like some kind of synthwave/dreampop type of song, as I'm really feeling that 1980's vibe.    "Swamp" has beats and keys and is a slower rap but it's just so much fun when it starts.   It's perfect pacing on this cassette.    This could be their anthem, but it's also about Florida so I don't know how it will play outside of the state.   Really though, most of these songs could be their anthem.  (Wait, maybe their anthem is the song named after them)

"69FT.D33P" spells out their name but for some reason it reminds me of Black Sheep.   Listening to "Orange Juice" though I just feel like this has that sense of old school hip hop to it overall, like the cassettes I used to listen to back in the 1990's.    "Rollercoaster" somehow starts with this Duran Duran drumming feel with the singing and everything. 

By the end of this cassette you will hear Jim Morrison called a drunken asshole.   You will also hear these little piano keys that sound like early Twenty One Pilots.   And the whole idea of "Gonna keep on ridin'" makes me wish I still had a car with a tape deck because this is one you want to listen to in full, then let it flip over and listen to it all over again.