Cassette Review // Toxic Chicken "Buff!" (Ingrown Records)

https://ingrown.bandcamp.com/album/buff 

Words cannot properly convey how much I enjoy this cassette.  It's like hearing music for the first time, realizing that such beautiful sounds could not only be made but could bring someone listening to them such joy.  "Buff!" is somewhere between computer music and video games, as it has those beeps and boops like 8bit would but it is not 100% in the same genre as all that because it just seems to have this added element to it.   One of the things to think about with electronic music- especially when it is instrumental- is that it can sound like it is technology and therefore not really feel like it has a soul.  Toxic Chicken has somehow brought that feeling of a soul to this computer-based sound.

Fun, upbeat and energetic are words I would use to describe this.  Sometimes I think of 100 gecs, sometimes I think of this as simply being the soundtrack to a video game that might not exist but I certainly want to play it.   If there was a video game this could be tied to, in the second song- "A good time"- ideas of SNES come out, like Fatal Fury, Street Fighter and even Ninja Gaidan.  In that aspect of those games it also quite that arcade game style to it, taking me back to the 1990's when my local mall had an arcade in it and I used to play the WWF Royal Rumble game or TMNT.

Though it might not make much sense unless you hear it, the third song, "Coctails in the sun", has this nice walking way about it and it is the first time on the cassette I feel as if the music could be from the point of view of a chicken.   Bass and percussion come in o "Overstand" and then beeping (like honking cars) and vocals come in.   There are three things which you can feel, based on these lyrics, and one of them simply says: "I feel so good", which is definitely an effect this music can have on the listener.

Big elastic type of sounds can come out with other tones underneath and then it all just picks up like Pokemon.  This is where the first side comes to an end and this cassette is the album "Buff!" by Toxic Chicken and then also bonus tracks, though Side A does end on "Jolly froggies amateur hour" so the first song on the second side is the last song on "Buff!" and then the bonus tracks begin.  

The video game sound persists, almost like jumping but then with the laser blasts as well.  "Vibing" says "I feel so good", which is definitely a theme of this cassette, and then "Buff Attitude" sounds like chaotic pinball.  I'm not sure what is being said during this song because it's buried behind the music but I do hear the line "Take this with a grain of salt".  "Hot Sun" feels like a sunny day and the lyrics say: "I can feel the sand / I like it in my hand" so this just reminds me of a nice day at the beach.

As we get into "MANIA" it could sound like either Pac Man eating pellets or Mario collecting coins.  "Mocktails In The Sun" has a flute and xylophone trills, with the title being in a lot of the lyrics.  Distorted space blasts take us into "Never Alone" and that reminder that we are all in this together just feels like a perfect way to end this cassette, which is overall strongly positive, on a bright note.

Toxic Chicken is just one of the best sounds I have ever heard.  I am glad that there are twenty releases on the Toxic Chicken Bandcamp page for me to explore.  I'm not sure if this is music made for kids or if it just releasing my inner child, but there is just something pure in this which you do not hear in music any more (and maybe never have before)  People have said to me "Thank you for reviewing my cassette" but with "Buff!" I want to say that the literal pleasure in listening to this is just worth so much more.