Anthemtic Tapes - Anthemtic Beliefs (Hypercolour)

 

Title: Anthemtic Beliefs

Artist: Anthemtic Tapes

Label: Hypercolour

Cat Number: HYPELP024

Genre: Post Rave Brain Melters

1: The Mesmerising Beauty Of Imperfection

2: Modern Matters

3: Plantasia

4: Petrichor People

5: Imagination X

6: Raindrops

7: Ritzy

8: Tape Odyssey

9: American Extacy

10: Nothing Else Matters (Real Version)

11: Trancelucid

12: The Mesmerising Beauty Of Imperfection (Dub)

It’s 8;15 on a Tuesday morning and I’m waiting for ‘Frasier’ to come on the TV. The coffee is brewing, so what better time than to listen to ‘Anthemtic Beliefs’ and try to understand the motivation to make such a “jaw dropping collection of post-rave brain-melters”. This album is, as far as I am aware, just available on cassette and download. Which is an interesting approach inasmuch as having it on cassette is one surefire way of doing everything possible to make the album a truly conceptual listening experience. There won’t be much needle lifting and cherrypicking. The digital approach will more than allow for that. Anyway, I’m writing this to say, amongst other things, that this is one of the most interesting albums I’ve listened to all year. So, who is  Anthemtic Tapes? I have no idea. He or she is the proverbial “shadowy producer”, which is nice, as anonymity is still something to aspire to in many fields. And the music suits the mystery. This is an album on the edge of the imaginary listening experience. It’s a wobbly balance of darkness and light, not really tripping over into the full blown dystopia of many hardcore collections, rather just about remaining on the cusp of sun kissed optimism. Definitely more “second summer of love” than what followed shortly after. There’s definitely a movement towards the sound of sunlight filtering through a dusty room, and this is amplified by a rawness and the pervasive, low frequency sound of crackling vinyl from start to finish.