vhs head: persistence of vision

Picking up from and advancing on his well-received 2010 debut full-length offering Trademark Ribbons of Gold, VHS Head continues in his exploration of emotive sketchbook electronics, cutting up and sampling reams and reams of old school VHS tapes to create a baffling, arresting and nostalgic trip into the world of twisted, lo-fi, tape-compressed electronica. VHS Head perverts all manners of sound sources, both musical and not, in a melting pot of deranged creativity, wrangling melodies out of disparate snatches of sounds and welding the results over a variety of differing percussive beds and beats ranging from the pastoral lushness of "Angels Never Sleep" or "Do You Understand" travelling through the gamut of styles, all the way through to barbed, hyperactive, glitched-out IDM-inspired workouts such as the glitch-funk of opener "Enter the Devil." Children of the '80s will undoubtedly recognize snatches of sounds from their childhood on this record along with the comforting, fuzzy warmth of the obsolete format that is VHS tape. It contains snatches of quizshow-esque excess, sleazy softcore porn twangs and salutations, crazed kids' TV themes, liberal smatterings of video nasty nastiness and an '80s bad hair, power-rock, noirish edge that at points recalls the feel, tone and subdued menace of Twin Peaks and its ilk. It is a record for 2014, referencing the hazy days when we were all growing up -- a compendium of time and place for the MTV generation and beyond.