Cassette Review // Advection "Stairs EP" (Solid Melts)

 

($7 // Edition of 20)

https://solidmelts.bandcamp.com/album/stairs-ep

The concept of Advection as a word is really something to wrap your mind around.  The definition reads as: "the transfer of heat or matter by the flow of a fluid, especially horizontally in the atmosphere or the sea"  Of course, right away, when I think of something being transferred in the ocean by fluid and being warm my first thought goes to "Fish pee in the ocean!" but it seems like so much more than that, which is kind of scary to think about.  It's odd to think in general about how we function on land but then to think about how life survives underwater is a whole other story.

"Stairs" begins with electronics, which are mostly beats and beeps.  There are synth skips and then we get into the blissed out casiotone sound as well.  Through some static, we eventually find these louder, isolated beeps which come through like an SOS.  The idea of sound and how it travels- and how it can be heard- underwater all comes into play now as I think about it and wonder what it must be like to try and communicate underwater as living beings.  Also, sound underwater is so muted on the surface which is crazy otherwise this world would be so much noisier (I type as my neighbors talk loudly outside my apartment)

Static and a background noise makes me think we're in an alley now, but there is also this general feeling of rain.  The electronics scramble and I feel like I'm also hearing a flute.  A sharper ringing brings about the sounds of tapping.   Somehow this all leads us to church organs, but in a more distorted way.   A little bit of crashing down brings us to the end of the first side and I'm left thinking about why humans are the only species that attend church.

On the flip side we begin with sounds like broken piano keys, which makes me think of Daniel Johnston (a strange comparison on this electronic EP).  Whirrs come through in a trippy way and then beats come on with synths like Beverly Hills Cop.   Big, explosive beats drop over scratches now.  Big echoing beats fill that void and it's somewhat scary like a horror movie but also could be the sound of insects.   Fast paced beats combine with slower, more dramatic tones.  Lasers and chaos ensue now.  

Melodic synth drones in.   Tones cut into it, like a flight.  It is odd to think about how something like a bird or an airplane can soar through the air so fast and yet there are also creatures who move just as quickly only underwater.  A record scratching type of manipulation sound comes through with electronics and beeps.  All of this becomes hypnotic and reminds me a bit of "Stranger Things" to close out the cassette.  Thinking about all of the sounds which vibrate underwater, they might very well be hypnotic if we were to hear them properly.