BIG SIGH AND BAD DREAM VACUUM "It Gets Easier" (Oligopolist Records)



The first bit of information that this cassette gives in it's liner notes is that it was recorded "between Portland, OR, Denver, CO, Louisville, KY, Bloomington, IN, Brunswick, ME, --from 2012-2015" this is all you need to know to make sense of this tape. The songs change scenery and tone like a cross country drive, everything is different from a distance but once the car picks up speed everything blurs into place.

The 1-2-3 punch offered on the first side of Buzzed, Sown, and Circus show the time and distance that went into It Gets Easier. Buzzed is a fuzzed out banger with the mangled vocals and hooks that'll have the listener wearing out the tape. Sown is an instrumental track that opens with the lush electronic textures that one would associate with the Northwestern drone scene, but it slowly morphs into a busy jangly guitar melody that has all the down-home playfulness of a Kentucky grass jam. Big Sigh then turns in Circus, a delirious pop tune that could sit well as a deranged Sgt. Pepper's b-side. The vocals are mangled and demand that the listener sign a contract with "The king of sleep"

Whatever this guy wants me to sign, I'm on board. What I'm trying to say is, this tape is necessary and weird.

https://oligopolistrecords.bandcamp.com/album/it-gets-easier

-- Scott Murphy