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Melted Cassettes, "The Real Sounds From Hell Recordings"
Across 13 tracks of sample abuse and digital detritus, the debut album from this duo is a hyper-kinetic, violent outburst of occasionally musical noise that mixes up some odd concoctions that sometimes work, and sometimes don't.
To some extent I was reminded of the early Digital Hardcore days when listening to this album for the first time.Not necessarily that they sound the same, but both capture that same sense of caffeine fueled spastic electronic fun, though here it is abstracted even further into a noisier mess, without the overuse of 909 beats and guitar samples that DHR always worked with.
The problem is, however, just like the DHR scene, fatigue sets in rather quickly when listening to the album in a single setting.Like the chaotic ambience and flashing lights of the video arcades that inspired the record, it quickly becomes a sensory overload, gelling into a mess of mid and high-range noises, all pushed into the red.
In smaller bites, however, it’s pretty palatable:the modem-tone like rhythms of "Shining Figures" pile up into big blasts of sound and echoed voices, coming across with the bombast and aggression of '80s metal.Both "Pushing Buttons" and "A Year On The Toilet" go for a more synth-punk blast feel, all rapid fire and overdriven screams.
It's on tracks like "Razed From The Bottle" that great moments shine through:maxed out loops start out kind of danceable, but are soon blown up into a full on blast of grindcore like squall that works great together.While "Chrome Violence" is still noisy as all hell, there almost seems to be a synth-pop heart beating at the core of the otherwise fuzzed out beast, making it a standout.
"Plastic Bubble Byter" also makes some concessions for conventionality, with the abstract digital noise outbursts that open the track eventually being melded into something a bit more catchy.Going the other direction is "Xzrzrz," which, with its brittle, droning electronics come across as more ambient and deliberate, rather than the hyperactivity that preceded it.
Somewhere near that intersection of synth-driven music and balls-out noise is The Real Sounds From Hell Recordings . As I have said, it is a bit abrasive to try and take in all at once…while I can sit through an hour of the Incapacitants just fine, I think it's the constant shift between noise and music, often within the span of a second, that makes it more difficult to absorb.My first full listen was not an overall enjoyable experience, but when I came back and gave it a go in smaller doses, I found it to be a much more enjoyable excursion.
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