Monday, December 13, 2010

aTelecine - "Cassette Tape Culture" LP (Sasha Grey)

I am not going to go into the debate about how Sasha Grey has used her celebrity status to sell a noise record. I don't really care about the subject. And, I believe SO, SO many noise artists use their "status" to sell tapes, and Sasha Grey is just taking it to an extreme. And it's an "extreme" music, right? (Hell, it's not as bad as her tape, which cost $125, now THAT'S exploitation of her fans, hmm is maybe someone getting back at an industry that "exploited" her...? haha, who cares). Well, this album isn't extreme, I'll say that much off the bat. Even as a fan of Sasha Grey the fuck toy, I'm not impressed by this album. It felt thin, but not in a "reserved" kind of way. It has a few moments, sure, but overall falls pretty flat in my book. Holy shit the last song on the first side needs to die forever, just a repeated bassline prog with partyish room record background. in case youre curious, "I came I saw I departed" is just what you hear in the sample looped for however long it is, and its by far the longest track on the album (and by far the harshest, still not harsh by normal standards). the song "auon (live)" had potential to be being legitimately haunting (all reverb/echo pitch shifted ritualish vocal chants), but in the context of the rest of the album it doesnt come across that way. There's a lot of ambient/easy listening-sounding stuff on here, and thats not my cup of tea so its not really fair for me to judge its quality. i really hate shit-talking music, usually if i dont like something i just wont say anything at all. But i found the arguments on this entire thread interesting and relevant to what a LOT of the artists out there are doing to sell their shit, just in different circumstances and to varying degrees. Another thing I feel the need to point out is I guess because it had Sasha Grey's name attached to the band I was expecting a bigger budget release. Nicer than most releases, but still its kinda pixelated artwork, like it got run through too many computers, and the solid colors are not totally solid, forget what that term's called, when theres tiny white dots between the purply-gray color; theyre not very richly printed i guess. Same goes on the center sticker. I think to a lot of people this would be a big waste of money. I'm very fortunate that the NOVELTY of a porn star i'm into making noise (and i use that term generously with this album, this is kinda almost a dance album or something in a way) is appealing to me, and even I think thats pretty fucked up that thats the only reason i sorta like it, but whatever I think that kind of appeal is ok for me every now and then. It will def be fun to play this for non-noise fans who are into Sasha Grey, just for the novelty.

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