Ruomu Guo, Alex Obal and Michael Tau of Musculus claim to have discovered a buried cache of cassettes with a metal detector, which they have spun into a curious, creepy opus.
[Release page] Ruomu Guo, Alex Obal and Michael Tau of Musculus claim to have discovered a buried cache of cassettes with a metal detector, which they have spun into a curious, creepy opus. As the nearly twenty-minute “Soul Gems” begins, we hear with reasonable clarity what appears to be an interview between a social worker and a recent immigrant to Canada. As the interview progresses, its increasingly ominous soundtrack obscures the dialogue. The cheap drum machine and dime-store electronic melody are themselves overshadowed by a horrow show of an organ blaring long, oppressive chords.
When the tapes are switched to a male voice of academic authority intoning on something to do with biology, the organ grows several shades darker. It becomes increasingly noxious and the drum machine seems to struggle to keep the beat before finally giving up. After repeated, muffled renditions of Nat King Cole’s “Unforgettable,” its pipes vent one last, foul cloud of exhaust. It’s an absolute behemoth of a piece, melodramatic and low-budget, Italian giallo cinema for the ears.
The two tracks which follow are less breathtaking. “Bethunder” screws the speed on some conversational English course tapes way down as a more conventional, planetarium-show synthesizer irradiates the surroundings. But it has already worn out its welcome long before the tape starts running backwards and a bit sideways. The final track, “Evader,” is unsettling in a less dramatic manner than “Soul Gems,” as the roar of the seashore is given a sort of dub treatment, in which wind whipping the head of the microphone, suggestive of a flapping, tattered flag, becomes the lead instrument. It sounds awfully cold, desolate and exposed.
Not In is available on Dokuro. [Release page]
