Cassette Review // New Standards Men "I Was a Starship" (Personal Archives)

https://personalarchives.bandcamp.com/album/i-was-a-starship

This one starts off quietly with these sounds like being in supersonic space, but then the bass line drops in and it all gets rather psychedelic.   As the guitars and percussion kick in, this takes us into the desert, somewhere between The Doors and something Jeffrey Alexander would create.   The guitars ring through now and you have to listen for those space tones behind them because their sound is faint.

While this builds up in such a large way, it can also just remain mellow.  Harsher sounds come through, like the feedback from a guitar, and it just overall feels like a psychedelic rock show mixed with the qualities of a noise rock band.   In some ways, I like to imagine this as being the type of vibe that would've took place back in 1969 at Woodstock had Sonic Youth been around to play it then, both being influenced by the time.

We go into a new song, which kicks in much heavier and with this distorted sort of synth sound in it as well.   As it starts ringing, it can feel like it's cutting through as well.  It's difficult to describe how this is all happening, but if you imagine the sound starting out as this chainsaw buzzing through a tree, well there comes a point where the tree is just barely hanging on and the lumberjacks just kind of let it fall, finish the job on its own, and that's how this feels like as it brings the first side to its end.

On the flip side we start with more of a metallic scratching coming through.  This takes us into these long, eerie drones which makes it feel like wherever we are, we're in trouble.   The percussion walks us in, like a child who is in trouble being pulled out of class, and then the distortion follows.   This has the feeling of a song from "The Crow" soundtrack.   As those blaring guitars fade out we return with this aggressive percussion.   That slow drive sound comes back and this has a nice rhythm to it all.

As this song continues it reminds me a bit of Porno for Pyros, who I feel like I keep hearing in things a lot and am not sure what that is a sign of exactly.  It sounds as if there is talking buried behind all of the other sounds, with a sound such as a siren going up and down being at the front of it all.   Everything gets louder now, falling off into the abyss and then it's just a huge cloud of distortion over it all.