Love Katy — I'll Be Your Gift
The unlabeled purple coloured cassette comes in a full colour double sided sleeve- this features on its front cover a very provocative picture of Ms Perry in a bikini with her hand down her pants. And the reverse we get a selection of stills of Perry (made up as an old women), and other characters dressed-up in retro party/ clown gear.
Side Ones track is entitled “I’m The Girl That You Should Call”. The track opens with a direct sample from “birthday” taking in the strutting funk pop meets 80’s synth pop disco tipped opening of the track. Gradually this chopping, spinning, and melted clapping noise mesh rises up & engulfs the sample- which in the end completely disappears. I guess you’d say this opening ‘wall’ does have quite a noised-up birthday party like feel to it- as the chopping textures sound balloon their like mid range yet meaty & squelching attack. And the spinning/ clapping mesh of textures that surrounds this main tone rather brought to mind birthday cheer. At around the 3.40 we star to shift into another ‘wall’, and this is a slight more simplistic blend of seared, dense & bass bound wind billow, which is underfeed by galloping jittering. The remainder of the track focus in on this ‘wall’, with some nice subtle shifts & slight deviations in both elements. In the last few minutes we get a live sample of Ms Perry playing the "Birthday" track & stage batter under the ‘wall’- with the ‘wall’ slowly fading out, and we are just left with the sample.
Flipping over side two we have “It’s Time Bring Out The Big Balloons”. Once again it starts with another sample - this time it’s a rather bizarre & quirky affair- taking in a distant sample of the song with Ms Perry doing impression & skits over the top. At the two minute mark the "Birthday" song comes into full effect, over this we get a mix of wintry trail ripping & growing storm-like merged billowing. By the five minute mark the sample has been just about engulfed, though you can still make out what’s possible an interview sample mixed with crowd noise. At the 6th minute mark the song sample kicks back in again over the ‘wall’. Over time the ‘wall’ shifts in it’s battering & billowing textural push ‘n’ pull- which is quite effective, but sadly the sample only fully fades around the 8th minute & we get into more focused ‘wall’ making. In the last few minutes the song sample kicks back in, as the ‘wall’ fades back.
Of the two tracks here I’d say the first stands out, as firstly the opening ‘wall’ here is great & really captures the vibe of the theme; also the general mix of ‘wall’ & sample is (mostly) just right. Sadly with the second sides track the "Birthday" song sample & silly Perry banter was just overloading- sure I can see that LK is trying to capture a kooky & buoyant vibe, but the over reliance on the samples backing was just too much for me, & it lessens the impact of the ‘wall’ elements. In summing there is certainly some clever & rewarding ‘wall-making’ going on here- it’s just a pity the sampled elements were way too overused in places. I wanted to give this a 2 & 1/2 mark, but as we don't do half's I've give it a 2.