Deathwave

Received this tape through the post accompanied by a large cellophane food bag filled with sweeties. I devoured the gobstoppers and jellies while surveying the tape labelled ‘Deathwave: The Sound of One Hand Snapping’. Overjoyed at the free sugar and suspicious as to the anonymous sender’s luck with regards to the choice of bribe I placed the tape aside until review time and lit my spliff.

The first track is some crazy, indescribable music. One bit of sound in it reminded me of that rave hardcore vibe and then it drifted into something that sounded like Bladerunner Vangelis. After several minutes of listening I thought that whoever has put this together knows what they are doing as a soundscape began to form. Tracks are expertly faded together and the sound quality is good.

The music then changed to some funky electronic beat like I was now in the seventies. A synth layered in that connected this track with the previous and I sat back and chilled listening quietly for a moment. After a while glockenspiel and harpsichord elements broke the hypnotic beat and then kicked up into gear like some Akira dance. A male vocal joins the fray and now I’m tapping my foot along to a growling bass.

Wow, the first side ended with a skipping track that then got turned off at just the right moment. Impressive structuring. Flipped over to side two and the pace is kept up with a slamming guitar riff and fast pace drums. The music then goes quite dark and eventually we come to a sampled voice repeating the phrase “Please everybody if we haven’t done what we could’ve done we’ve tried”.

This is an intense mix. The second side drifts off into a group of songs that meld together despite their obvious differences. My tape player actually broke half way through this section and I had to stop the tape and turn everything off for a few minutes. There is a recurring fault which prevents me from using this machine much where it will start to add really loud static to whatever is playing. Switching it off for a few minutes and back on again will rectify it for an unknown period of time. Hopefully the end of the tape.

A cute piece of music has just broken the long previous section. Sounding like whistling birds in a crystal lake. A dramatic end approaches and my sender does not disappoint with a beautiful alien Indian ambient track that suddenly cuts off to finish.

Overall, I was impressed. Technically superb, expertly structured and with a strong set of tracks, I was entertained and amazed without getting bored. However, what shone most was the obvious time and effort invested in this tape and for me that is what really made it stand out.