Cassette Review // MANURE MOVERS OF OF AMERICA "Cassette Tape #2" (Already Dead Tapes)

$6 //
Edition of 100 //
https://alreadydeadtapes.bandcamp.com/album/cassette-tape-2 //

We begin with this static rain and a tone behind it which moves like Pole Position.   It feels as if we are rocking back and forth as electricity builds in the background.    This carries a certain amount of static with it- like we have been zapped- but it just continues to grow and move.    There is a solid burst coming through now and it also feels as if something is breathing heavily behind it, struggling to keep up.    I'm not sure why, but now I imagine this song as being a monster, a pile of goo and garbage in a corner somewhere that has somehow come to life and is not as menacing as it is struggling.

The thing which makes me feel sometimes like this isn't a monster though is that there is still this rocking back and forth, and that makes me think we're on a ship at sea or something similar where if you really focus on the waves and motion you could perhaps make yourself sick.   There also exists this build to this, where it feels like we have one of those giant saws and we're taking it to a tree, the suspense of the back and forth with that eventual shock of the tree falling over and yelling timber as being both so satisfying and terrifying.

In many ways now I feel like we are in a wave storm but that constant back and forth makes me also feel as if we are at sea.   I cannot imagine the feeling of floating lost at sea, water all around you, all you can see in any direction, and then it begins raining as well, just to add more water to your troubles.

A deeper, darker string sound comes through now with some alien type vibes behind it.   This is somehow calming though.  There are occasional laser blasts back there but overall this is a sound which is able to put my mind at ease.

On the flip side we open with some static and then dark drones which sound like whales.   This static crumbles and builds though the darkness behind it all looms.   The strings move and its that suspense of a movie score, something out of the days of Alfred Hitchcock (which, yes, this makes me want to go through and revisit a lot of his movies once again)   At times, when related to film, this can also make me think of "JAWS".

Through static rain a sound now comes which is electronic in itself but yet somehow it reminds me of laughing.   Perhaps it is best described as a spring, but all I hear is the "ha ha ha ha" part of it.   Some static crackling now as well, which begs to wonder how this sound of fire can exist within this sound of rain.   A bit of that lightsaber sound in here now makes me wish we could have lived in a world where Alfred Hitchcock directed a Star Wars film somehow (And on a serious note, with George Lucas not directing Star Wars any more, I'm surprised they haven't given more directors a chance to do so.  I want to see Spike Lee's Star Wars!)

A dark electronic bass starts up now.  This makes me think of "Hackers", but also of "Pole Position".   I don't know if I've told this story or not before, but let me tell it now.  My grandparents had a Pole Position board game (It's probably still in their closet) that I used to play a lot as a kid, so though I know it's a video game and I've played the video game as well, I'll always think of that board game and the sticky wheels.

Now that I'm back from looking up things on eBay I probably shouldn't be buying, this final song has this engine feel to it, as it builds up, drops down and just cuts through everything like an electronic accordion.    It's not the loudest of songs to end on, but it also isn't the softest, so it's neither quite going out with a whimper or a bang but just that sense of completion.