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Rok Lok Records : Reviews
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Reviews for [RL60]
Kevin Greenspon "Singles Club #4- Empty Minutes"




  • Depression Chamber
    I think a lot of people who check out this tumblr already know the Kevvy Greenspon story, so I should probably skip it. But there’s always that person who stumbles onto these and they get to learn about someone they haven’t learned of/heard of before. Kevin Greenspon is from my hometown La Puente. He’s been busting his ass for the past couple of years making his own music (that comes out in many different sounds) and releasing the music of his friends on his label Bridgetown Records (La Puente means the bridge, hence the name of the label), Right now he’s on a 3 month tour trekking through all of the U.S. of A. He should already, slowly be making his way back. Can’t wait to see him again. Rok Lok seems to love Kevin as well, and don’t we all? This guy is a poster boy for doing things out of your bedroom and placing them in the open air for the world to see, buy, feel, experience, and be a part of. Although his drone/ambient structures are relatively short and maybe a bit simple at first listen, the fact that he constructs them in a certain way to be playable live gives them an air of simple complexity. How do you make ambient sounds a pop song? I honestly don’t know the answer, but from all I can tell by seeing Kevin live all you need is a guitar, a box full of pedals, wires, and some cassettes. How do you make it good and stylized like Kevin? You probably have to play a lot. I think if there’s one thing that Kevin and those other ambient dudes that make things to record have in common is that the sounds that come out often times feel otherworldly. This tape feels otherworldly. Kevin’s earlier attempts at ambient/guitar based drone stuff usually came out sounding a little like if someone slowed down some of his stuff even earlier than his beginning ambient work. His one man guitar based pop punk from Del Tecate played by the train tracks or with a ton of static in the air. Or maybe played through a broken T.V. instead of an amplifier. Slowly the guitar became less guitary and more airy. Sometimes the guitar sounds like a synthesizer. That happens a few times on this cassette. I think a large portion of the time Kevin is crooning with his guitar strings, pedals, and cassette noise in a way that feels like sounds are being lightly pumped out of a synthesizer of some kind. Almost religiously it feels like he’s masking the fact that he’s using a guitar. Sometimes I want to tell myself that the explosion at the end of side B is a guitar scratching and being scathing, but having seen him live I (almost) know for certain it’s a microphone destroying all the beauty he built up to that point. Whatever, flip the tape over and it starts again. The tape set up is very similar to portions 1 - 3 of the series. Which is great as it keeps them kind of loosely knit together. The little bird on the tape reappears, mine is blue on this. Stamped on a sticker that contains Kevin’s name and giving you the capability of differentiating between side A and side B. The j-card is in full color, and looks really nice. I think the tape is dubbed by Mr. Rok Lok himself.