Cassette Review // Dreamwheel "Wild Days/Chain of Fear" (Nefarious Industries)

 

https://dreamwheel.bandcamp.com/album/wild-days-chain-of-fear

There is something comforting in this being a cassingle because when I was younger we'd go to the record store (or a department store) and buy a cassingle of a song we heard on the radio.  Often times you could pay $3.49 (or as low as $0.99!) for two songs, one of which was the radio hit, and then you wouldn't have to pay for an entire album worth of music.   Now it feels like the cassingle is done when you have two songs you want to put out there into the world, but the weight of it is the same as a full length cassette still.

"Wild Days" begins with a strong, resonating new wave sound.  The music feels guitar-driven and can come out as a cross between Metric and YAWNi.  There is just that drive behind this song that I really enjoy, and being on the A Side this could seen as the single of the two and the B Side would be a more obscure song (not on the radio)   This song also says "Don't waste your wild days" and it's true, because eventually we get too old to do certain things.  I also enjoy the line "Show me how to live".

On the flip side we have "Chain of Fear" which comes out with more energy.  There are still those wispy vocals and strong guitars which were heard in the first song, but there isn't really anything which would prevent this song from being on the radio so I feel like we have two possible radio hits here, two A Sides.  While the first song is about seizing the day, "Chain of Fear" feels more like it's about letting go of your inhibitions, and either way this just feels like it's going to help improve your lifestyle.

While you might buy a cassingle back in the 1990's to get that one song because you felt like the rest of the album might be bad, in the year 2024 the cassingle feels more like it's being done because both of these songs need that individual attention which they might not get on an album full of other songs.   This is the best possible way to be introduced to Dreamwheel and I simply cannot recommend listening to this cassette enough.