Cassette Review // Concrete Colored Paint "Through a Lens" (Orb Tapes)

$8 //
Edition of 50 //
https://orbtapes.bandcamp.com/album/through-a-lens //

This cassette begins with the sounds of water and birds.   There is a slow growing behind it, a synth that feels like "Knight RIder" or "Logan's Run".   Tones come through now which make this feel more like glass and there is a rather relaxing feeling about this overall, as it somehow seems to morph into a carnival.    It feels mystical somehow too, partly like an old kung-fu film.

The next song begins with more of a "Pole Position" type of synth and footsteps can be heard echoing.   These synths now just grow, as the footsteps fade, and expand into new horizons.   More sounds like footsteps now, but instead of echoing inside it feels as if we're walking outside through the woods.    A back and forth of sharper glass tones now as we're still walking, like we're being stalked in a horror film.   It's almost like a whistling, but from a train or something more than human.

Voices now, and there is one more central than the others but then a lot in the background so at first it makes me picture a disorderly classroom  but then I think about if it's school it's probably lunch time.   Then I just imagine it as being some public place like an airport or mall as the pleasant tones come in with it and you can hear those glass sounds.   There is a feeling of a music box now as everything seems to go into outerspace with those sweet laser synths and drop tones.

Singing begins the next song now.   Then there is a wave of  air.   Singing and guitars now but it feels more like an audio clip than organic performance.    Footsteps now, like on soil, and the synth comes in like "Stranger Things".    Voices, birds and tones like a flute begin now.   There is an angelic way about this sound combined with the audio clip of a crowded street with many people walking and talking.   The tones grow like a merry-go-round and engines can be heard driving by as those voices persist. 

On the flip side we open with tones which sound somewhat like an SOS in sonar and then the steady rhythm on train tracks.   Tones come in loops like a pinball machine.   Deep synths expand.   Walking steps again now, more out in nature than inside.   There is an overall relaxing feeling to this one once again as well.   Rock n roll can be heard but it seems as if it is playing in a public space through speakers more than in a live way.   Pianos now as well.   Some crashes and banging, voices, like we're inside a mall.   Synths slowly creep like Pong.

Back and forth tones are really fun now, upbeat, as voices can be heard talking with each other.   In some ways this feels like a game of ping pong as the tempo increases and then those "Stranger Things" tones return as someone can be heard coughing.    And then it all just culminates in feeling like we're at the carnival.   As the electronic melody begins on the next song I am reminded of the ice cream truck.   Sounds cut through like swords now.   Voices speak clearly through synth waves as that song ends.

Tones slowly come onto the scene now, somewhat like "Stranger Things" but also with an acoustic feel.    It really begins to slap in this bass way and then it just kind of fades out.   Crowd sourced audio once again now, as we're back into a public place.    Electronics flow through the audio clip a bit like droids but they remind me specifically of C3PO.    The next song is softer sounds, and this is how it all ends, as words are spoken but not really words I can type here and it just ties all of the audio clips mixed with synths together so well to create such an experience of being wherever your mind can take you.