SARIN “Oversize Novelty Tape” C35 (Personal Archives)


I’m familiar with oversize novelty foam fingers, the ones you see at sporting events (I myself have quite the collection), but an oversize nov… er, “Oversize Novelty Tape”? Now THAT’S something new! Good thing I can squeeze it into my cassette deck – I probably don’t need those springs and sprockets that popped out of there in the midst of all the shoving. It plays too – I’m kind of glad for that.

There’s nothing “novelty” about Sarin, a quartet composed of Kyle, Kaylee, Mathias, and Matt. They improvise dronescapes with cinematic flair, almost begging for their work to be included as incidental passages in some auteur’s latest film. In fact, I bet they hang around backlot gates all the time, just waiting for bigwigs to emerge. I don’t know how they can afford the airfare from Des Moines.

If I’m gonna use “cinematic” as an adjective for music, I better back it up, right? “Oversize Novelty Tape” ONLY does mood, and the two seventeen-minute pieces that comprise the tape ooze restraint and craft, demanding an active imagination while listening. Good thing my imagination’s probably my greatest attribute! Lotta tense work here, punctuated at times by synth trills that sound like the whale-searching alien in “Star Trek IV.” So have I convinced you to buy this tape yet, dumbass? Well if not, then double dumbass on you!



--Ryan