Cassette Review // Spooky Visions "Spooky Visions" (Tetryon Tapes)

https://tetryontapes.bandcamp.com/album/spooky-visions

For me, I feel like there's always been this connection between the name a band chooses and the music they make.  Yes, at one point it kind of all got flipped upside down, but I believe if you have a name Spooky Visions you need to live up to a certain standard of music.   And as an example of this, the self-titled cassette came with a pin so if someone out there sees that pin on my backpack and decides to look up Spooky Visions they likely have already formulated some sense of idea of what they should sound like in their mind.

Spooky Visions does live up to its name though as I feel like they could create a spectacular cover of "Dead Man's Party" should anyone want to do an Oingo Boingo tribute cassette (Please?)  They have that vibe of being from the 1980's / 1990's when music was about "Weird Science" and keyboards were used to round out the sound.  I don't think any other time period has quite captured this sound and so I always take it back to then with artists such as Oingo Boingo and Devo.  

Through this keyboard/laser/synth sound though, Spooky Visions is very much a punk rock band as they just have that energy.  If you told me this was a lost cassette from 1989 or so I would be inclined to believe you as it feels more retro than new wave.   The percussion plays a big role and you can really hear that on "The War".   These songs are also all fairly catchy so you can sing along.  They also have their titles in the chorus, which is becoming somewhat of a lost art in music these days.

Perhaps one of my favorite aspects of this cassette though is that despite the music feeling upbeat overall- in the sense that you can imagine kids from "Revenge of the Nerds" era of music bouncing around to this- they have a song such as "Violence on my Mind" in here which has more of depressing lyrics.   Whether or not people will really notice or just sing along is another question, but it adds layers to this cassette and if you see the name out there be sure to follow through.