Cassette Review // Burning Books "Taller Than God" (Ingrown Records)
This sound begins like a hue, droning in as if the sun was rising first thing in the morning. There is something both angelic and uplifting about this sound. It can feel as if we are ascending into the clouds, all the way up into Heaven. There are also these steady beat drops- the bum-bum-bum as it echoes, which can make this all feel post rock, like the score for a film by Focus Features. The next song hits with these heavily distorted guitar chords which just ring and resonate as this all feels so ambient now.
As we get into that second song it just feels like this is music with a purpose. Sometimes you hear these sounds and they can just make you feel relaxed, sometimes it feels like they exist so you can clear your head of your thoughts. But the way that Burning Books is bringing these out makes me feel more like we are inside of a story, inside that score from a film such as "Brick". The sound now drops off into this deep, dark place where it feels like the bass will get you.
We can feel like we are exploring the depths of the ocean in a submarine while at the same time realizing that we are in over our heads. The sound has just pulled us into somewhere so far down- and after feeling like we were up so high- that I'm just not sure we can ever recover. Strong vibes of the film "Drag Me To Hell" now. It's a slow, mechanical dirge inflicting pain with every note.
Into more pleasant tones now, as it can feel like we here the recording of the cassette come to a stop- it makes that kind of sound as we also get a little bit of that tape warble. This ambient sound comes through now, so loudly it almost becomes harsh but I like to think of it as sounding like light and how sometimes it can just shine too brightly for you to see. We whirr through in ways which may or may not affect your ears but would definitely upset the sensitive ears of, say, a dog.
There is a lot of power within this sound. If you could turn it into something physical, it could knock you over. Through some scratches and screeches, we go right into this metal bass line that just comes in with such force. It's like watching a gang approach you, such as in the film "The Warriors", but they just keep coming forward until they become you, the way a wave can devour an entire ship. Notes ring through and it feel ominous.
We slowly begin rebuilding these ambient whirrs now. Notes come through like a mechanical animal and this one can go from being so minimal that you can barely hear it to so loud it can hurt your ears like the flip of a switch. It gets to the point where you can just feel as if it is all so big, so expansive that it is taking over the entire room which you are in (but could take over so much more as well) and then just like that it's gone.
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