Cassette Review // Normal Tea "Normal Tea"

£8 //
https://normaltea.bandcamp.com/album/normal-tea

Right away, I can tell you that this one is anything but normal.   There are these guitar riffs but sometimes it feels like these frequencies distorting the very fabric of space and time.  On top of that, there are these drum beats like hip hop.   The vocals come out smooth, like jazz, but they also have soul and it's just... It's something you might have heard in an R&B way in the 1990's or earlier but then it also just has this level of weird to it that makes it sound not like that but some form of that. 

Sometimes I hear the notes and just think it's hip hop.   Even with the vocals, all I can hear is the sounds of hip hop (The vocals can have this robotic/1980's way about them at times)   But then it comes down to me asking myself if this is hip hop, what does it sound like?  Why can't I find an artist who makes hip hop that sounds like this?   Through these instrumental clicks now, the synth drops and expands like Rush as these weird vocals speak words behind it all.

We're just jamming now with this killer guitar riff and though there have been these psych rock vibes throughout this cassette, this really brings it up that much more.   I wonder if anyone has ever combined hip hop and weirdo rock together so well before, but I can only guess that no one has. 

Big distorted beats come in next and this is going back to that instrumental hip hop.    This brings out some more beats and words are spoken, singing as well, and it just feels like something alien in a lot of ways.    It feels chopped up, with starts and stops, and I just don't really expect anything less crazy than this from this cassette.   There is a definite groove on here as well.

On the flip side we open up with these funky synths and drums which take us into this place I like to hear kind of like "Ghostbusters".    As funky as this is, it has that classic vibe with the beats and reminds me a bit of Hendrix.   This song goes on for quite some time but that just seems to make it more trippy-- like you can really lose yourself in it and feel like it's been going on for years. 

The next song has this crazy drum roll part which is just superfast, these video game-like lasers are shot off in the background and the vocals come through singing so this sounds like something almost in that punk realm. 

Sad strings come in by themselves next and they are quite loud.   There are some drums back there and then we go into this song where someone is singing and it has a definite industrial/techno feel to it.   Then the guitars kick in and it feels like punk/metal.   This song has this great screamy quality, but also kicks in and just sounds like Filter or something along those lines, which I really like about it.    Synth keys really kick in and I keep thinking of Cloud Nothings' "Attack On Memory".    The vocals get jumbled up now like a modem, which feels like a fitting way to go out because this can't end in a normal way.