Wednesday, September 6, 2017

Cassette Review: Arvo Zylo "Sequencer Works Volume Three" (Personal Archives)


Right away you have to notice that this is the third volume of collected works by Arvo Zylo and- spoiler alert- it is the final volume, three of three, and whether or not you want to go find the previous two which came before this and listen to them as well remains up to you.   I think after you listen to this one you'll want to go find the other two, but listening to the last one first doesn't really seem to be a big deal.  

What can be described as electronic looping sometimes finds video games sounds mixed in.    There are these little noise blips, but then it can become industrial as well, with some grinding.   At one point it begins to add layers one by one and that's pretty neat.    This takes us into a track which sounds like straight up video game play and I enjoy it.   I wonder if people started recording only the audio of their video gaming if that could become a genre of music I listen to (Would it maybe need a beat behind it?)

Shots are fired and there is electronic laughing now.    It grows quieter, sounds coming out in random intervals.   The percussion sounds like horse clopping and then it goes back into this rhythm, a pattern of sorts I cannot describe but do enjoy ever so much.    Big distorted beats bring out a sound I've always been a fan of and then we find grooves and beats on the final track on Side A, which features the most powerful and soulful voice of Atalee Judy.    Wow.  Just wow on that last track.

Side B follows all of this up with a beep sort of drone that can stray off into other electronic sounds and just in general break up that drone.   It's quite unique in terms of other drone music out there and since I haven't mentioned it yet, this isn't actually from 2017 or recorded more recently it's actually over a decade old and as such is rather ahead of its time.   It has those sci-fi movie from the 1950's feels to it as well.     The video game sound returns as if we are some sort of arcade and I'm loving it because I used to go to arcades in my younger years.

As the music continues there are patches of manipulated static, blasts, bursts and a sound that I know is static somehow but sounds like water leaking out of something.   It goes from this fun video game vibe into this almost polar opposite sound because it's got the same sort of rhythm and pattern to it in a sense, but the delivery is just... it's like going from an electric guitar to acoustic except with different instruments.    There is also this chugging, like a locomotive.     It eventually also comes out with these doorbell type ringing sounds-- it's like glass and has a pretty melody to it.

Before it all comes to an end, we have some vocals come out including on a cover of Flipper's "Life is Cheap" and, yeah, this is one of the greatest cassettes I've ever heard and I'm already looking into more music by Arvo Zylo.   I suggest you do the same.


$6 // Edition of 100 // https://personalarchives.bandcamp.com/album/sequencer-works-volume-three








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