Cassette Review // Vlimmer "XIII" (Blackjack Illuminist Records)

€4 //
Edition of 15 //
https://blackjackilluministrecords.bandcamp.com/album/xiii //

Right away I can hear the Depeche Mode in these songs.   It has that new wave style we should have come to know and expect from Vlimmer by now.    It can be called darkwave or thought of as something from the 1980's but really it's just a sound that most (myself included) first heard on cassette and Vlimmer returning that sound to its source is what we all need in this world of music.

At times there are drum machines which can remind me of "Pretty Hate Machine" era Nine Inch Nails and at other times there are just these loud crashes you can't explain.   A mystery-thriller type of song can be heard on the first side, somewhat like a James Bond theme, and then it just turns into this faster paced song like when U2 was on the "Batman Forever" soundtrack. 

The percussion on "XIII" seems to be the story this cassette wants to tell.    At one point on the flip side there is this swarm of electronics, which kind of reminds me of when the Twenty One Pilots songs go hard.   This whole cassette ends on a song which has a little bit of that black and yellow, back and forth hip hop feel to it but also it has some definite X-Files tones.

While it just fascinates me that Vlimmer can keep going like this, it's also just something which I love about music is the time which elapses between releases.   There are comparisons I might have been able to pull out before that I couldn't now or vice versa and sometimes it's because Vlimmer would make this particular set of songs sound more that way than a set of songs on a different EP, but also a lot of it is my own environment as a listener.    You know, maybe if I was watching "Back To School" this year I would have made a different comparison than I made last year when I was watching that movie.   Not saying it happened like that, but music just works and creates on so many levels in that regard and Vlimmer is at the top of the class with them.