Cassette Review // Versioning "Cloud Plateau" (Ingrown Records)

https://ingrown.bandcamp.com/album/cloud-plateau

This cassette begins with underwater electronics.  It sounds like a pinball game, but it also sounds like it's being played under the sea somehow.  Higher tones are bouncing around now and they almost feel like meows, but they're just these somewhat sharp sounds which feel like they're out in space because they have a bit of an echo to them.  There is also this idea of a bouncing ball, and then the video game electronics really kicks in to set the mood for this feeling like a quest.  It's those keys now and we're just taking off.  

As everything gets reduced back down to only those higher tones that song ends.  We begin the next one with the synth tones slowly bleeding in.  Beeping is coming in behind this now, giving it a rather futuristic type of sound.   The beats come in now with those claps.  This goes on in a way which can feel hypnotic and then it's only the percussion as it comes to an end.   The next song brings in some of that hip hop percussion followed by faster drum playing.  Synth tone keys now like we're back in a video game but also punk rock.

The way these synths sneak through reminds me a bit of Stranger Things.  It can feel like we're just steadily flying a spaceship in an old Atari video game, but then those drum crashes come in.  The synth tones return for the next song but there's some distortion on them and a sort of primal howling as well, which can be made by a musical instrument but sounds like an animal.  Percussion comes in now and makes this almost a chill drone.  This animalistic sound also feels like it might be singing.  

On the flip side we open up with some nice space synth tones and singing.  This all feels magical now.  Into those deeper synth tones now, sort of like Pole Position but it also feels like we're on the merry go round.   The beats are slowly kicking in now.   A sharper tone takes the lead on this song now and it flutters through, somewhat like a flute, somewhat like a bumblebee.  Two different sets of percussion echo each other now and this has turned into a dance.  

The next song starts with some steady hip hop percussion.  The one comes in like a woodwind instrument, maybe a sax or clarinet, and it just swirls around until it reveals itself to sound more like vocals put through a filter.  The percussion feels like it's snapping and breaking as that song comes to an end.   More of that magic within the tones coming out to start the next song.  This is a sort of lighter, celestial sound now.  There is an urgency to it as well.   Tones come through to make it feel like we're either in a magical vortex or flashing back, but either way it's out of this world. 

Video game tones come through to start the next song.  This is very dreamy as well, like an electronic lullaby.  Beats kick in but this still just feels like floating.  We could also be all the way up in space, experiencing these sounds as falling stars.  By the end it just feels like we've been through this strange and magical journey, but it is one which you could take many times and have different results.