Cassette Review // Van Goth "Is It?"

https://vangothrocks.bandcamp.com/album/is-it

Van Goth is the duo of Sydney Salk and Simon Schadler.  They trade off on vocals during these songs, which begin with beats and bass lines on "One Night Performance".  There is a definite goth feel to all of this, as the name suggests, but then it can also feel like we're going off into space with these X-Files types of feels as well.  I like the idea of the song "One Night Performance" as well, as the lyrics say: "Try my best not to scare your friends / Hope the people invite me again".  It feels like we spend so much time auditioning for people, trying to find out if they like us and will accept us.

Big guitar lines join in with the bass and beats on "Secondary Location".   There are dual vocals on the line that says: "Never go to a secondary location" and this is just solid advice for almost anything you encounter in life.  It doesn't matter who the person is or what reason you're meeting them, but obviously if it's just something like Facebook Marketplace and someone is asking you to go to a secondary location you will likey be murdered.   Notes can sound like Pong to take us into "DDB" and then it has that bass and guitar drive.  This song reminds me of Flaming Lips at times, but also reminds me of Hole as well.

Simon Schadler takes over the vocals on "Defense" and it feels like it has these Nirvana-like guitar chords to close out the first side of this cassette.  Onto the flip side and the beats and bass lines are back.  Cool bass lines, which almost feels like dreamy surf, bring out lyrics like: "It's a night / A night to forget" and that's just a reminder that not all of our times are good times.  Dinging and a surf guitar vibe take us into "The Function" and I'm thinking of The Darts.   On "Circles" the vocals can feel like they're talking to each other and there are strong guitar parts throughout the song.  

Dreamy electronics take us into "Matter of Course", the final song on the cassette.  It even has the line: "This is where the party ends" to show you that it will all be over soon.  At times this cassette reminds me of The Dreameaters, but I also keep hearing what I think of as a xylophone within these songs but it isn't listed in the credits.  The only instrument in the credits I think could actually be it is the Glockenspiel, which feels similar in appearance but now I might end up doing some sort of sound deep dive into what the actual differences are.  

I will give Van Goth a lot of credit for their name.  I think it's clever for sure, but also if you're scrolling somewhere and see it to the point where it interests you enough to listen to their music (as it did with me) then you're going to find that this is sort of artsy in that Van Gogh way but also very much feeling goth which is just half their name.  It might not be the easiest sound to describe musically, as it really doesn't have a lot of artists to compare it with in a broad sense, but if you're going in with certain expectations as to how Van Goth would sound based on their name you will be pleased and beyond.