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

€14 //
Edition of 30 //
https://blackjackilluministrecords.bandcamp.com/album/xiiiii //

Somehow, putting on the music of Vlimmer makes me feel a sense of comfort.   It's odd, but the music is from modern times yet it sounds like something from when I was in my younger years and so I think those two factors together really make me feel at peace.   Right away on this cassette I also feel like Vlimmer comes out with this sound which reminds me of one of perhaps the best known bands out there in their genre: Depeche Mode and at the same time a band called Alison Ranger, which I feel like perhaps many people never knew about.

Into the second song, things get a bit more dreamy like "The Breakfast Club" or shoegaze.    And then it just feels like we get into this flurry of synth/percussion and it's great.   This also begins to really remind me of The Cure.    The third song begins with a darker synth though, there is this drive to it and it makes me feel like we're going industrial or into something more techno based than with the guitars.   There is an "X-Files" way about this as well.    The sound grows more distorted- but like it's being stretched- as it starts, stops and then ends.

On the flip side we open with big synths which make me feel more like the sound is dreamy, almost sleepy.    This somehow becomes a slower, darker march.   Some uplifting tones enter the song, but this one just really comes into its own in terms of sound.    There is a haunted quality to this song as well, as I just imagine listening to it while driving along a stretch of road at night which just is completely dark with nothing to be seen for miles in any direction.

The last song takes us back to that place where I think of something like The Cure, but then also something more modern like Brazil (that old Fearless Records band) but then also I'm just thinking about Vlimmer because after you hear an artist enough times they just begin to take on a sound all their own and Vlimmer has done that.

This cassette also came with two small books that I like to call comic books because there isn't really any easier way to describe them.   Each page has a unique illustration and words to go along with it.   Though it might not read like what you think of as a typical comic book when paired with these songs it makes a lot more sense and I just really feel like it heightens the overall musical experience of Vlimmer.