Cassette Review // Oliver Kearns "Amelioration" (Aphelion Editions)

£5 //
Edition of 50 //
https://aphelioneditions.bandcamp.com/album/amelioration //

Soft waves and tones bring this cassette to light as it feels like we are on the beach.   There is this deeper tone which comes in and out like the waves, but this feels very minimal still, rather somber as well.  It could almost relax you to sleep if parts of it didn't feel so haunted.   The percussion comes in now, as you can hear the cymbal taps and crash.    This leads to a new song of magical wind chimes which just make it feel lighter than before.    A little bit of static and hues come through as those cymbals once again return.

There is just a way about these sounds.   They feel minimal, but like they could fill an entire room at the same time.    I imagine this being played in one of those giant theaters where they have a huge stage and all of the seating is outdoors.   In many ways this just feels too big of a sound to be contained.   It gets quieter now, becomes reduced almost to nothing, yet still remains so powerfully moving. 

Tones come in waves now and there are deep vocals behind them.    Sometimes it feels like very little is happening during this song, and then all of a sudden it all comes through in one giant burst, if only for a moment.    The singing comes through now more with the delicate strumming of a guitar and it feels broken, like a fragment of a song and yet is still somehow more meaningful than other full songs I've heard before.

The bells come through now like church.   Vocals, like a chorus singing, are spliced into the background in pieces.    There is a beat behind this all now, like a heartbeat.   It becomes this wave, like the way something might swing around in a circle but it also just makes me feel like we're watching a film in slow motion.    Full on jazz drums come in now and this has that feeling between church, a lullaby and swing.    The way it increases is hypnotic. 

On the flip side we open with this back and forth sound of waves which eventually has these chords come through which sound tropical.   A loud ringing like church bells and some scrambles before the acoustic guitar strings combine with the piano keys of destruction.   This went from something rather quiet and calm to something louder and hectic in a split second.   Singing can be heard now, though I'm sure they are not words here.

Louder, sharp beeps come through now like a homing beacon and then it crashes through even louder with a lot of noise.   It can be some calm, so peaceful and then in the blink of an eye turn into something completely opposite of that.   Then we just sort of drift into the calm of the ocean for a while now.   It's relaxing, but at the same time at any moment I feel like it could get loud again so I'm not too much at ease.

Percussion enters now in that Phil Collins sort of way.    Pianos then take over as this has a post rock feel in that FNL sense, but it also just feels post apocalyptic.   It feels like it's post-everything.   Like nothing is around anymore except for this sound.    Cymbals can be heard crashing and it feels like the ending to an indie film where everything is dying.   Those cymbals persist though and you have to give this one credit because whenever it feels like it might be on its last legs it somehow finds a way to make it through.