Smersh – “Cassette Pets” – [Dark Entries]

More obscure brilliance via the Dark Entries label. The dug-up corpse on display in this instance is a Piscataway, NJ duo who, occasionally in collaboration with friends, made synthy industrial/no-wave/whatever during free time between the years of 1981-1994 in a basement evidently containing a Roland TB-303 Bassline, a DJ-70, a TR-606 Drumatix, an SH-09, an MC-202 MicroComposer, a Korg Poly-800, a Casio SK-1, a VL-Tone VL-1, an RZ-1 Drum Machine, an Electro Harmonix Mini-Synthesizer, an ARP 2600P v2.0, a Trumpet, and a Guitar. They released these experiments on a great many cassettes through their own label, Atlas King. This 2012 2xLP is a retrospective consisting of tracks selected by Dark Entries as the best, or most representative, etc. from these 30+ tape releases. It showcases a diverse sound with several different threads of influence: noiseheads like Big Black (who used the same model of drum machine) Suicide and Scratch Acid; theoretically danceable industrial a la Nitzer Ebb, ‘Twitch’-era Ministry or Cabaret Voltaire; and the TB-303-laced grooves of early American acid house like Phuture. Smersh’s lyrics are basically nonsense and vocals, when they occur, are mostly manic, mic-overloading screams (A1, A2, A3, B1), but on B3 and JAMC-ish B5 they mellow out. Two guest vocalists are also featured: B4′s unhinged male falsetto on what seems to be a warped attempt at writing a Prince song, and a female vocalist/lyricist making herself uncomfortable on D2′s truly special-needsy take on classic electro. A4, B2, C1, C2, C3, D1 and D3 are all instrumentals, while D4 is an abstract piece that heavily employs backmasking. There’s music here for both the rave and the drug crash afterward. “I’m a Snickers bar/You’re a vegetable man and a rocking chair.”