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We Were Dancing "Mixtape Volume 1- 'we won't get old'" Ah mix-tapes, just the mention of the word invokes memories of spending hours sifting through cds, other tapes and records in order to compile all the right songs to fit and flow together in one wholly new and distinct experience. Mix-tapes are traps for memories, experiences to re-experience locked within a time frame of 60 to 90 minutes. Making a mix-tape for someone is not simply about sharing music, but about sharing your music, those essential pieces that are ordered in the right way to communicate the desired emotion. The major fallback with mix-tapes is that they were prone to getting tossed around, beat up, lost, found, partially taped over, mangled in faulty cassette players, or damaged in any variety of imaginable and unimaginable manner. Yet no matter how much battering the object went through, if the tape was important enough, there were always means of attempting to salvage it. Some would go as far as splicing it, dubbing it onto a new cassette, even carefully removing the tape itself from the damaged housing and placing it into a fresh one. With each change the cassette becomes further removed from its origins, taking on a life of its own; a life that you yourself made for it and that ages with you. With "Mixtape Vol. 1" We Were Dancing deliver a musical facsimile, or homage to those cassettes that have altered through the years. Under layers of hiss, muttering voices and other odd ambiences, reminiscent of tape wear a tinge of melody comes through, or a voice singing a song, or someone speaking in a room. The layered patina of sounds becomes a muffled mass at points, and then occasionally a fragment of clarity seeps in. "We Won't Get Old" is a rather murky affair, where the origins of the sounds are quite indiscernible. Creating a listening experience that is overflowing with nostalgia. Listening to this tape is like visiting an attic that's been stuffed to the brim with old memories, or searching through a book of photographs that belonged to your great grandparents. Things feel somewhat familiar, yet sound alien, as you've been removed so far from the source. The main strength of these sounds, is how nicely they invoke a distinct melancholia and air of fascination that only arises when encountering fragments of moments long past. 8/10 -- Cory Card (26 February, 2008)
8:07 AM
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