Cassette Review // The Dirty Sample "Love Always Wins If You Let It" (Hand'Solo Records)

 

https://handsolorecords.bandcamp.com/album/love-always-wins-if-you-let-it

One of the first things which needs to be said about this cassette is that Hand'Solo has a tradition of putting instrumentals of songs on Side B, but "Love Always Wins If You Let It" is instrumental so there are different songs on both sides.  Through magical keys and beats, this cassette begins with an audio clip that says "I died when she left me".   As we get further into it, there is this audio clip that says "What do you want- the moon", which is from "It's A Wonderful Life" but also appears in a song by Modern Baseball.

From feeling like a steady lullaby to the pounding of the keys, this comes out as a hip hop journey that has lines like: "I can't remember anything with you".   There is also a song called "No Bad, No Good" which says "Without a bad, it's no good", which can feel like a good way to think about how the bad times are what make the good times so special.  There aren't even really lyrics about it, but you can still contemplate it all.

While this isn't exactly what is happening on every song, the impression that I get from most of these songs is that an audio clip was taken- such as on "Shmoopy"- and turned into a song.   This is interesting because you have that one specific idea turned into an entire song.  And, really, what is a song but one idea.  But to have it be instrumental and the music bringing forth that message- and envoking that feeling- is not something which is easy to do, but The Dirty Sample has done it.

Though I do not know the exact process that went into creating these songs, to me it feels as if someone (The Dirty Sample) sat down and thought about all of the times that love became dominant in their life.  For me, it would be times growing up watching shows like "Wonder Years" with Winnie Cooper.  Then you take these audio clips and turn each one of them into a song so you have this cassette with just this overall feeling of love but also a representation of how you learned about love throughout your entire life.