Cassette Review // Poppy H "Grave Era" (Cruel Nature Records)
An ambiance fills the sounds as beeps are spread out. This definitely starts with that feeling as if we are floating in space. We slowly move through as if the sound is being produced through an old projector. There is just that overall feeling of watching an old film, but it's just moving as well to where it feels like we're sending a message from space that we've completed our mission but we are not coming home.
Acoustic guitar strums come in next. Other notes join in and this is a soft, delicate type of rock song. It sounds like something is knocked over in the background as that song comes to an end. Beeps that feel more like Pong go back and forth now. There are also elements within here to make this feel like a frantic pinball machine. Very fast paced electro-beats are behind this sound as well, as the synth expands and opens up to the heavens. There is a faint sound as if someone is saying "wow" in the background as well.
The next song begins with a droning that reminds me of dialtone. An audio message is telling us to please stand by and some lovely notes come through. That buzzing continues with these beautiful notes and now someone is talking behind them. This feels like a scene out of a movie. The notes are back and forth, as a song now, and then the gentle strumming of the guitar can be heard behind this trip as well. A little slip of static comes through and it sounds like stop is being pressed on the tape recorder.
Running water now brings us into the next song. Notes come through now but they bend and warp. The notes find this deepness to feel like they're dropping off of the deep end. This doesn't feel like the beauty we heard before, but rather like destruction and perhaps the apocalypse. This takes us into a song where the notes come through in a way which makes it feel more like we're about to go into a kung fu film. There are words coming through behind this now, singing. A sort of drilling sound comes through with this all now. A beep.
There are some other odd sounds in here as this side comes to an end. What I find fascinating throughout this first side of the cassette is that while I was listening with earbuds and I had the volume up to a decent amount, it is still sunny and nice outside so I could hear this sound from outside as well. During one point where it felt like we were watching old home movies, I could hear someone outside yell "Good job!", as if they're teaching their child to ride a bike. The way these two moments that happened at the same time felt rather appropriate.
Just really blissed out guitar strums start Side B and we go into this more dramatic sound like a sitcom from the 1980's. Clicks and whooshes now make it feel like we're locking in and then launching into space. An ominous drone enters behind this all now. It feels almost like heavy breathing and then we turn into this eerie sound, like a fog is filling the sound. A strumming now which feels like it's on a broken toy guitar. This has more of that things falling apart feel to it and I like it because I feel like you can see things around you doing exactly that in unison with the sound.
Singing begins the next song and then a very somber piano part follows. We dive more into this air now, which feels like it carries on throughout the cassette but also has more of a haunted wind way about it right now. But then we go into this electronic-wavy type of sound which almost makes it feel like we're underwater while also in space at the same time. A pretty guitar strum comes through now and it feels as if there are piano keys behind it as well. This is somewhere between someone tuning/warming up a guitar and playing at a cocktail lounge.
Guitar notes come through with enough distortion to remind me of an accordion and I feel like we're going down the streets of Italy in a boat. The piano keys climb up and drop off. This also is the end of the cassette and though I do believe that the world is round if you were to believe that the Earth is flat and when you hit a certain point you just sort of fall off into space then I think this sound might very well capture that. More than anything it is a fitting end as it feels so final, so finite.
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