church of gravitron - "divorce tape"
[cassette]
the sounds of ahhh...broken bits of electronic hum, digital delay drones, and gameboy round off a fine "piece" condemned for eternity to magnetic tape. thirty minutes of space sounds and static charge. inspired by a real divorce!
reviews
In fact inspired by an actual divorce, Divorce Tape is a curious and uncomfortable album, definitely not trying to aim for easy listener accessibility. Whoever the Church of Gravitron is, its mastermind isn't out for something readily digestible. The title isn't actually listed on the tape, no track listing is provided, and the artwork is black and white abstraction at most. All one knows is all one hears, in this case a collection of snippets, fragments, and electronic collages ranging from the hauntingly melancholy to the aggressive. Sculpted into one overall recording, the effect is both captivating and disorienting, often lurching from one approach or style to another at a moment's notice. Plenty of guitar distortion is afoot, turning some moments into near My Bloody Valentine levels of sonic abuse, interspersed with calmer electronic samples and tape use and abuse through the first side, setting a stage of a slowly collapsing universe in miniature. The second half is the calmer one in comparison, split into three sections, with the first a series of low feedback moans creating a distanced, abstract ambience. The second section again applies MBV -style feedback crash and chaos via overdubs, only now with a central melody rising through the mix as a strange, distant signal of hope as the loops of fragmented noise swirl around it. In its own way, it's uplifting, and if the tape is meant to capture the progress of a divorce, perhaps this signals the step beyond it, riding through the bedlam of a situation to aim at something new or higher. The final part provides vocals for the first and only time, though even they are chopped and hidden in static, possibly Vocodored and not quite understandable — perhaps an attempt to convey communication where none was possible. — Ned Raggett - All Music Guide