Cassette Review // Simon Irvine "Ritual Music" (Pink Dolphin Music)

£6 //
Edition of 8 //
https://pinkdolphinmusic.bandcamp.com/album/ritual-music //

We begin with this dark ringing, which almost feels like knocking, and then it enters a zone of alien spaces which makes me think of "The X-Files" or something along those lines.   Claps and beats come in now to the point where you could get up and dance to this as some sort of funky Area 51 Party.    Distorted guitars ring in now as well.    Synths give this one a gothic feel.     The way that this entire song has just grown- as distorted vocals are added in now- just makes it feel more like an album within itself than a single song.

Guitar notes drop in now and add to the chaos.   This is intense, somewhat haunted.    And then it just builds to that end where you would hope for the applause when played live.   We scale it back into softer hues now.   A little bit of a fog coming in.    Tones enter- perhaps guitar notes- which give off a definite "X-Files" vibe.    Big block beats come in now and this has a chill vibe to it.    Vocals come in now and it gets quite trippy, hypnotic.   I feel like it is putting me under a spell.

Big pianos now start off a peaceful song.    I feel less like the aliens are in here, but it does feel like we're up floating in the clouds.   Electronic vocals come through and this has a certain pop feel to it.    It might even be a form of -wave, if popwave could be such a thing, and then the big beats kick in again.    Somehow now this tone comes through blaring and it feels like a sax, like something from a 1980's movie (I'm thinking "Better Off Dead") when they just went into such random solos.

Following that solo though it feels like we're headed back into that alien realm once again.    The distorted vocals have returned as well.    There is such a symphonic sound to this in ways as well, as at times I can think of it as being like an orchestra playing each individual part.     Beats now return and we're into the next song with a more upbeat feel to it.   Tones twist and wind, up and down, then flow through.   It feels almost like it is whistling now. 

An audio clip now is telling us "This is the voice of a man condemned" and then it kind of starts skipping to fade out.   Beats come in fast and hard like "Blue Monday".    As it kicks in it feels like it's slapping and these sort of Transformers synths come in behind it all in waves.    The tones make me feel like this is somewhere between New Order and Orgy though, which is a nice place to be.    The audio clip returns where it left off and then kind of glitches out again. 

On the flip side we open up with these funky echoing beats which seem to say "mine mine mine mine" but at times they sound like other words or no words at all.    The beat claps in and it takes on this almost Transformer sound as it's somewhere between electronics in a "Resident Evil" way and electronics in a technology way.     We slowly begin driving now and this just has such a great moving pace that it's something you could drive to, especially if you imagine yourself in some older car with a tape deck that looked like what they thought back then future cars would look like (think: Back to the Future)

The beat comes knocking and a soulful singing comes through which puts a spell on me.   Though the singing does continue I can also find just the beats themselves, the rhythm of it all, to be hypnotyzing.    A little of that static crackle takes us into the next song with claps and these glass tones which can wind and curve like ghosts.    A quieter, more minimal feeling electronic loop now takes us into some heavenly ohms.    It's the contrast of relaxing on clouds mixed with a virtual pinball game that really makes this all come together.

We transition into a smoother video game type of sound now, somewhere between Miami Vice and Double Dragon.    There is a great dance quality to be found here, which I suppose could be said for most all of these songs.   Eerie tones come through now, like this cassette has become haunted, but then vocals begin to speak, almost shout at us, as the beats enter once again and this has a strong Bruce Lee quality to it for me.   As more singing enters there is a definite future quality to this I enjoy, as this whole cassette has had that futuristic vibe.