Cassette Review // SPACE CAMP "Overjoyed in This World"

https://spacecampct.bandcamp.com/album/overjoyed-in-this-world

Though this isn't the first album from SPACE CAMP, it is their first cassette so it will be what I review first.   The sound of SPACE CAMP is not easy to describe in words.  If you look at the list of musicians who appear on this you might think it's going to have a sound like ska or swing, but it does not.   While at its heart it could be screamo, there are also electronics and other aspects of music which come into play here, leaving SPACE CAMP in a league all their own.

Screaming over singing, dark electronics and during the first song it just feels like the music is glitching.   Distortion can come through in this heavy wave where it feels like it's just wiping out all existence.   Drums feel like they are marching and then we go into a song with an electronic rhythm and dance synths.  I, admittedly, have not listened to a lot of music that has that darkness in it but also feels like it could be at the dance club but perhaps this is goth.

Through explosions come words like "You wouldn't understand" but also "Too fucking fabulous".   Big strings and then beats are one of the things which has SPACE CAMP sounding like themselves.   There is a smooth saxophone solo in here and then the lines "holding the skyscraper together".   With whirrs and beeps, it all comes crashing down.  This can sound like The Dedication and JAWS all at once now.

It grows quieter, minimal and then ends with a piano song about gender roles and how people dress.  What I like about this is that some eleven years ago I had a son and that made me really question a lot of what this cassette is talking about.  If you have a child, it's "blue for boys and pink for girls", but I always wanted to know why.  Who decided that and who gets red?  That was when I really started thinking about how these rules aren't really rules.

A lot of what is happening in this cassette lyrically will make you think and hopefully rethink the idea of gender and how "boys can't wear dresses" is an outdated myth.  Musically, this comes out like one of the loudest sounds you may ever hear.   It's part Deathdealer. and part Sex Positions, both of whom are on Bandcamp but I feel aren't that widely known.   It is loud, but it is a different type of loud and it certainly resonates with me.