Daniel D. Smith, AKA The Face Melter, AKA Red Electric Rainbow, drops off quite a doozy with this c94 tome from Rainbow Bridge. The c90, otherwise known as the "Trenta" of the cassette world, is reserved for only the most daring individuals, but in bombastic show of grandeur, Smith slam-dunks an extra four minutes on, and raises the ante to unprecedented levels. The cassette itself is lovingly housed in a clear case (perhaps expressly for exposing that thick wad of tape slumbering in there…) As the executive of both Neon Blossom records and the Neon Marshmallow Festival you can pretty much guess what kind of music he tends to gravitate towards (dazzling, white-hot synthesizer manipulation) but as this lumbering, wobbly tape picked up speed, I noticed how he had effortlessly adapted to the Rainbow Bridge aesthetic—summoning slow-rolling tides of static and sprinkling spotty break-ups into his otherwise sunny pieces. Collaboration at its finest.
Side A in particular caught my attention—all the pistons are firing as he coasts through a magnificent fuzzed-out sea of voices and then nobly self-destructs into the uncontrollable din of an alarm clock symphony. Breathe…breathe… Side B.
P.S. The Chicago A.V. Club recently had an excellent feature on Neon Blossom Records as part of their Tapes 'n Tapes series. Check it out below:
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