Cassette Review // CHILLERS "Lastra" (Stratford Ct.)

                                           

https://chillersmusic.bandcamp.com/album/lastra

Cassettes are great for many reasons and one of those reasons is that you could find this cassette by CHILLERS and tell me it's from 1986 and I'd be inclined to believe you.  Dreamy synthwave takes over these songs for that feeling of nostalgia.   This is shown in the second song, "So Chill", as big synths come out with these wah-wah type of sounds as well.  Whether it is A Flock of Seagulls or WHAM! as your point of reference, CHILLERS would fit in perfectly with that era of music.

Really up until the third or fourth song this just goes at a chill pace.  There are elements of pop, but it feels like that one Neon Trees song everyone knows but not as fast paced.  But then when it does feel faster, it doesn't really sound like Neon Trees so maybe that doesn't work.  By the end of the first side we hit "Tell Me Who You Are", which is a song I would push as the big radio single.   Just going back to that idea of this being a time capsule I'd imagine this as their big radio hit back then.

Slower melodies begin the flip side as there are also these laser type synths.   Dark guitar notes can come through, such as you might hear with the help of a fog machine, and this cassette just has so much more going on musically than how it appears on the surface.  It takes until the very last song, "Night Life", before we hear those upbeat drums which make this feel more like a pop song but it still maintains that same overall sound- somewhere between past and present tense. 

If you should listen to "Lastra" by streaming you can experience it as a collection of six songs.  However, if you take on the cassette it becomes a split of three songs on each side.  In this way, you will hear the similarities between "Tell Me Who You Are" and "Night Life", which are the songs that close out both sides.  "Tell Me Who You Are" has the lyrics: "We're gettin' high / We're up all night" as well as "We never sleep" so to connect that with the night life just really connects this cassette and makes it feel as if CHILLERS has brought it full circle.