Cassette Review : Bathetic split cassingle

While there has been a steady revival of the cassette, there hasn't been much love for its sister format the cassingle. True, the cassingle wasn't very popular even when it came out originally, but it's a new era, and a quality cassingle is possible now. Look no further than Bathetic Records, who have started a series of split cassingles to showcase two artists, mostly in the electronic based ambiance/soundscape genre.
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Sparkling Wide Pressure/Lee Noble 

Up until this point I had always wondered why this wild, gooey, ambient music like this were always described with either a story or prose, but now after listening to this cassingle I can understand the practice a bit better. Saying that the songs done by both these artists amounts to various loops, beeps, and manipulations of their synths doesn't do justice to what they are actually producing.What both these songs actually do is produce mini movies in your mind. Sparkling Wild Pressure's "Caught in the Creek" is like some art school take on the swamp thing. Not evil, but the image (in part to the incredible art that comes with this cassette) of a black and white swamp covered in fog while a monster comes slowly out of the black pond can't help but be imagined. Lee Noble's "Real Object in Real Light" in turn is nice contrast to this, transporting the listener to some party with everything happening in slow motion, and it's one of those good parities where there is quality music coming out of the speakers, and everyone actually seems to be having fun.

Sparkling Wide Pressure & Lee Noble - CASSINGLE EXCERPT

Links:

Sparkling Wide Pressure on Bandcamp
Lee Noble on bandcamp
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Kevin Greenspon/Trudgers 

Two label mates on Bridgetown records have paired together to release this excellent split. Kevin Greenspon's side is supposedly split into tracks, but they blend so seamlessly into one another that it's a bit hard to believe. Whatever it is, Greenspon's side is sublime, his always unique take on "ambient" if you want to classify it as that. It moves and evolves from sparse notes to static noise over the process of it dripping out of your speakers and it still blows my mind that his music is composed of nothing but a guitar and tape manipulation. Trudgers add two new songs to this tape, some of their best recorded as well for the tape hiss and lo-fi sound of their earlier releases has now been stripped away. In turn this places Trudgers in a whole new light. Now the band's post-rock sound is much pronounced, and parts of the band's dark sound are gone due to the new clarity. However, the band still manages to balance their new evolution with their old style to produce two still equally dissonant and distant post-punk tunes. This was cassingle made to be the background music to long walks at night in the big city.

Kevin Greenspon and Trudgers-Cassingle Excerpt

Links:

Kevin Greenspon's Website
Trudgers on Myspace
Buy both cassingles here, from Bathetic Records