If you know me, you know I’ll never understand experimental tapes. What is the point? Do people actually listen to these? Who actually gets up in the morning and thinks “today, I’m going to experiment with my music genres!”?
If you know me, you also know I give credit where credit is due; I don’t like experimental tapes very much, but I judge them on nonpartisan criteria and am pretty generous with my ratings.
And finally, if you know me, you know I very much dislike writing negative reviews — I’m the guy who always tries to look for the best in everything. Alas, this is the third time in my career as a Cassette God that I’m being forced to write such an appraisal.
A note to Say Yes to the No-Nos: if you want to deem a song “experimental”, make sure it’s a damn song first.
Here’s how the word “song” is defined: 'A song is a single work of music with distinct and fixed positions and patterns using sound and silence and a variety of forms that often include the repetition of sections.’ I think we can extend some leniency to music with less "distinct or fixed positions" — as long as some pattern exists. "Sound and silence”? By all means. “Repetition of sections”? Be my guest!
My problem is this: the tape reeks of desperation. It screams “I wanna be an experimental tape!” under the guise of an accomplished one. There are too many positions and none of them fixed — too much sound and not enough silence — too much repetition and a dearth in unconventionality — too much vice and not enough versa.
Below is the link to a website that has the tape listed and nothing more. There was no download card or bandcamp link listed, so I did some hardcore research and came across this site. It just exists — you can’t purchase it or even stream it online.
And honestly, maybe that’s for the best.
http://www.freewebs.com/greentape/
-- M. Syed
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