Cassette Review // Trance Macabre "On TV"

https://trancemacabre.bandcamp.com/album/trance-macabre

One of the biggest things which everyone needs to know about Trance Macabre, whether you are local or not, is that their live show provides this sort of energy and with that each experience becomes unique.   I'm not going to say that their sound is similar to that of The Grateful Dead, but I truly believe they have that similar idea of when you think of people recording and bootlegging The Dead because from show to show there is just something different and it needs to be experienced.

"On TV" is three songs with little pauses in between them but it captures that overall feeling of their live show- a single moment in time that can be similar in another time and space but never exactly the same.  Some of this is due to the line up of Trance Macabre, as you can experience them with members in different numbers and roles, but this is a six piece and though they can get bigger or smaller it feels like a solid number of players.

Wild horns are joined by the bass and percussion.   As this first starts, it begins like ska in the way that Streetlight Manifesto also reminds me of ska but isn't quite ska.   The song takes us on a journey, where we feel as if we are being lead down this path and we are just following the music.  It flutters and can have these starts and stops, though there is also a steady drumming throughout.  The sax can get wild as well.

Big crashes with the horns take us into the second song, "Serpentine Belt", and this is one of those Trance Macabre songs that I recognize because it has a hook that seems to sing "ser-pen-tine" even though there aren't vocals saying that but rather I just place into the music in my mind.  Hypnotic in ways, one of the most important aspects to remember for all of these pieces is that while not every sound can be heard at all times, at some point in time you will hear every sound.

Lots of fluttering flute takes us into a bit more of funk, like Traffic, but there are also these sweet guitar parts, which feels like an electric guitar solo but I'm pretty sure there isn't a guitar in this particular line up.   By the end you can hear a "Thank you" to reassure that live element and this is that type of set I feel like you can hear a hundred times and always take something different out of it.