Cassette Review // AIMING "The Legend EP" (Blackjack Illuminist Records)

https://blackjackilluministrecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-legend-ep

The story of "The Legend EP" by AIMING is one which is told in four different parts, as there are four songs on this cassette.  Audio clips take us into this synthpop style which also can just feel like the vocals are so full.   Throughout this cassette there are certain sounds and the way the vocals shape up that will have you thinking you've heard this somewhere before.  That familiarity really makes this cassette impactful as it can feel like an old friend coming back to see you after being away for a while.

While there is a -gaze way about these songs, there are also steady beats and a lot of energy.  The second song, which is the titular track, begins with what feels like a trippy, dark bass line but eventually the song itself becomes rather dreamy.  I am reminded of Primitive Radio Gods as the song says "The Legend's staying out tonight".   "At Sea" has a faster moving bass which goes with those dark guitars.  An almost mechanical aspect comes into the guitars, but with an underlying goth sound.

Big drums take us into that emergency synth sound in a break down on "At Sea" and I am also reminded of a band such as Brazi.   "Docile", the fourth and final song, starts out feeling like one of the slower, more mellow songs by Deftones.   In ways it does have that quality of being the more melodic side of that band without the heavy kicking in, but then AIMING does have the kick into distortion just in a different way.  This song also has a nice slow, blissful build to it and it just shows how well the songs can be structured.  

Sometimes you might hear a single guitar riff or the way a word is spoken within a song and it will just remind you of another song by another artist but you just can't quite put your finger on their name.   That's how AIMING will lure you in with their sound and keep you coming back to listen again: because you'll feel like you've been listening to this EP, to this cassette, for years and you just realized it right now.