Cassette Review // Erica Dawn Lyle "GREATEST HITS"

https://ericadawnlyle.bandcamp.com/album/greatest-hits

One of the things I love about this cassette right away is that it looks like the type of cassette you would've bought back in the day because of the way the cover art is.   On the cover, there are a number of songs listed which are all prime cassette songs and at first, I thought maybe this was going to be a cover of "Barracuda", but as I listened further I realized these aren't the songs and that something else is going on within these songs, unless they're just very abstract covers.

This cassette is made with an electric guitar and it can loop at times but other times it just plays through.   There is distortion and melody, beauty and chaos and just everything we know that  a guitar can do from listening to rock music since forever.   At times the music is just feeling wild and all over the place, like Hendrix at Woodstock, and other times it just feels as technical as a master class in the guitar.  

On the flip side the guitars can create this clear and utter destruction sound, then come ringing through, one note at a time, piercing your very soul.   This takes us into these electronic tones and beats now behind the guitar notes dropping off in succession.    This all comes to a close with these really loud guitar chords that crash through and just end.

What makes this cassette so special is that you can hear these various sounds, but know that the majority of them are being made with an electric guitar.  We're so used to hearing a guitar with bass and drums that I feel like we take for granted what it can do on its own.  These songs serve as a nice reminder that the guitar itself is a powerful instrument.