Cassette Review // Zach Rowden "Floating Rosary" (Kalkatraz Cassettes)

https://kalkatrazcassettes.bandcamp.com/album/floating-rosary

This cassette starts with this very low bass drone.  It goes up a few octaves, in an almost video game way at times, and it can also bring out thoughts of "Jaws".   Some screeching comes in, through bursts and even these haunted whirr sounds like moaning.   Beeps like droids come in and it begins just feeling more pressure.   As it grows wavy, a loud ringing comes through that can be overwhelming.

Between the beeps, the bass and these moments of static this can feel like a distress signal being sent from space, some sort of s.o.s. but at the same time it can just feel like music for robots.  When music sounds like this it always tends to put me into the atmosphere of space and this certainly does feel like we're on that mission but whether or not we're coming home is yet to be determined.  

On the flip side we open with what sound like slipstream loops.  This brings in another sound now, which once again sounds haunted and it feels like those ghosts have returned.   When these loops get going they create this rhythm where it really begins to feel like they're speaking more than any pop song could produce in terms of repetition and being catchy in my mind and that is perhaps one of the truest forms of genius behind all of this.

Then this all just sort of stops to hear that static like a bee buzzing around.   A lower tone drops behind this and it creates some sort of insect hip hop vibe.   As that loop seems to conclude we get into this sort of dirge which makes me think of an industrial sound but also very mechanical, like someone working on a line in a factory.   This also just reminds me of that working sound, which makes me think of the movie "Joe Vs The Volcano".

As it reaches the end, the sound really gets intense  It takes on this back and forth and my mind goes from being in that factory working a blue collar to back into space as an astronaut.  I imagine this being the end of the space mission though, as the attempts to call for help went unanswered.  This would be the final sound you hear, the sound of the walls closing in on you as you run out of oxygen.