Reviews

Slipping Grip Productions

Full Bleed Bleed Out demo cassette

This is one of the most demented recordings I have heard in a very long time. I would have said that it’s lower than lo-fi, but if it’s all high end, treble knob cranked and snapped off, then what’s the term for that? I’ve listened to the full tape a few times and still can’t tell exactly what is going on half the time. Is it just a super fuzzed-out guitar with vocals on top? Is someone playing a full drum kit or is that just a snare drum being played from time to time along with the beat? Regardless, there is some undeniably cool songwriting here if you really focus in order to decipher what’s being played. The main thing that sticks with me is how much this dude has an absolutely killer voice. Picture a young Keith Morris with every line of vocals super distorted, having been recorded peaking way into the red. Wildly cool packaging on this—a cassette mailer with artwork glued onto each panel. It’s a good thing that this was sent to someone like me who is really into nasty recordings, because the packaging comes with a razor blade stuck to the front under a strip of painters tape as well as a Band Aid peeled and stuck to the inside cover. What other conclusion could one possibly reach as to what that is to be used for while listening to such a monstrosity entitled Bleed Out?

Jaws 69 Jaws 69 demo cassette

Bloomington, IN-based solo recording project. Almost impressively lo-fi recording, to the point that I couldn’t tell if there were drums on one song and am still confused what the unknown instrument on a couple of these tracks is. Six songs (and an intro) of high-treble, hard-to-digest punk, much like Alex Kintner’s floatation raft, left deflated and bloody. I thought the premise of Jaws: The Revenge (Jaws 4) was confusing, but it seems a lot has transpired between the fourth and sixty-ninth installment, because even after two full listens, I am left at a loss for words to describe exactly what it was I just listened to. After the second listen, I left the tape spinning, playing its dead tape hiss for quite some time before I was greeted by roughly the last minute of “The Life You Dream” by JUDY COLLINS to close out the cassette. I’m not putting anything past the creators of JAWS 69, so I will not be assuming if this was intentional or not. Limited edition of fifteen copies.

Outsider Two Song Demo cassette

It’s a confusing thing—I could have sworn that I was not a fan of recordings being overproduced, and that I prefer a recording to be a bit raw and lo-fi if it captures the essence of a band. OUTSIDER might have me reconsidering this stance, however. This may be a new frontrunner for the most lo-fi recording I have ever heard. It’s a shame too, because there are some pretty damn catchy riffs on it, which can be slightly deciphered from the cranked treble on the one guitar you can actually hear. Hell, I couldn’t even tell you for sure if there were drums on the songs or if my brain was just filling in the gaps. If you had told me this was someone’s practice tape of ideas for songs to show potential band members, I would have believed you; that’s closer to what this cassette sounds like than a demo. There’s two songs, it’s hardcore punk, they hate cops, there’s about two-and-a-half minutes of “music” on a forty-five minute tape, but I couldn’t tell you much else about it. I never thought I would be one to gripe about production values. Thanks a lot, OUTSIDER, I have no idea who I am anymore.

The ID 2004 Demo cassette

Just in case you missed the crazy little demo from Illinois’ the ID the first time around (you did), it’s back. This is some devilishly juvenile punk that sounds like it’s being played and recorded on Fisher Price equipment by mental hospital escapees. It’s three songs of gloriously haggard KBD action, and the increasingly rabid opener “The Kids at School” alone makes it worth a place in your tape collection, if you can find one.