Cassette Review // Shining Fields "The Tower to Surpass the Clouds" (Moonside Tapes)

 

https://moonsidetapes.bandcamp.com/album/the-tower-to-surpass-the-clouds

We begin with this very uplifting type of feel as there are synths coming through with other sounds and it just feels like we're ascending to Heaven.  This fades as we get into a steady rhythm of space synth and then synths are brought out in a more drawn out way with the sound of a death march behind them.  This definitely feels like we're doing something in space and then the percussion comes in feeling a bit like Phil Collins.   With some singing now, we've gone full on synthwave or possibly dreamwave.

At times this can remind me of Vlimmer, it just has this dark way about it but can also feel as if it's taking over an entire space.   A beat strikes now and echos.  The synth slowly crawls back in, as if we're in the film "The Thing".  The synth beams rattle like a snake now.  This sound moves through space and time like a machine.  The pace slows as we go into a more ambient feel and the music just sounds like the light.

Just being in all of this can also come to feel rathwr trippy.   The static returns within this whistling sound. The vocals return and this song makes me think of Flaming Lips.  That sort of whistle machine, like old steam-based technology, is still within it all.   At this point I also realize that I am likely in the titular track because the line "The Tower to Surpass the Clouds" is being sung here.   This also takes us to the end of the first side.  

A single tone and then wavy static drone begin the flip side.  It can feel as if we are soaring into space.  Big synths come in now like we're at the end of a John Hughes movie.  It can also feel like we are in the rain.  Some scattered synths, like we're spinning around in circles.  Everything begins winding down, as if the batteries in the tape player are dying and what sound like words can be heard behind it all.   We shift to distorted beats now and the pace has officially picked up.

Some static and then we're into this very ambient air.  Some rumblings behind this, but it can still feel like we are in space.  Little noises like you might imagine in the atmosphere.   At the same time this can feel like sonar, which makes me think that we are underwater.  The next sounds come out like this breathing machine, just the up and down of the air, which makes me think we have that oxygen tank to help us breathe underwater.  Magical tones appear and disappear behind this all as well now.

Everything turns into this wild drum machine beat now with the synths and we've gone back into that sort of gothic rock sound heard on the first side.   Though there are not vocals this time, you can still feel the energy.  We shift into a darker synth rattle now.  Sharper sounds cut through.  A wavy pattern and then synths shoot off into space.  Big expanding synths now join in with those organ tones and this has a definite space feel to it.  This all comes to an end and it feels as if whatever needed to be accomplished- such as destroying the Death Star- has happened and the universe is now at peace.