Cassette Review // Itch Princess "POP CALL PASSES" (Crass Lips Records)

https://itchprincess.bandcamp.com/album/pop-call-passes-3

One of my favorite aspects of music is that you can hear two somewhat completely different sounds and not only enjoy them both but some artist out there will find a way to make them work together.   While there is this distinct rock sound to the music of Itch Princess, which at times can feel like either Metric or Slothrust, there is also just this other part of it which seems to draw more influence from music which tends to be instrumental only.

With horns, these songs can be a little bit psychedelic and yet also indie rock.  The vocals twist and it feels magical at the same time.   There is this overall feeling on this cassette of the music being a controlled chaos: it feels random on some level but also rather deliberate.   It can turn into the very sound of destruction or even have that Transformers synth feel.  Ultimately, you could call this "noise rock" but there must be a heavy emphasis on the noise.

Guitar riffs and drums, this is very loud with starts and stops as well.  There is this guttural scream that just needs to be heard, though by the end it just sort of slows down and drifts off into space.  In some ways, I think a band such as Sonic Youth might have been trying to create a sound such as this.  But creating this sound, as Itch Princess has, is about not just ripping off other artists- which is not easy to do- and also not just putting vocals over an otherwise instrumental sound.  There is some sort of formula for it and Itch Princess seems to have found it.