[RATING: 5] …and in another episode of ‘things that should have got lots of love a long minute ago on MB’ this week, here is the latest instalment from the Sacred Jade Tapes family – Jade Palace’s Cassetta Del Mistero. Sacred Jade Tapes? That’ll be the same crowd responsible for such previous works of sampling glory as 5 Element Clones, The Crate Rebellion and Assault On Pokeep then? The very same – SP forum fanatics to a person, and hopeless soundtrack-sampling maniacs at the same time. Make no mistake, to listen to their work is to enter a retro-sci-fi, martial arts, horror film soundtrack wonderland. This time round it’s all about Jade Palace a.k.a. Lockmsith and Sneed The Jade Badger (I promise I’m not making this up) and what they term ‘fellow Jade Palace Guard and Sacred Jade Tapes alumni’ plundering the world of retro Italian horror film soundtracks (among other sources) for an atmospheric ‘sound collage’ of music, trailer and spoken word samples interwoven with beats.
If you’ve previously listened to the anything that emerges from this mysterious production collective, you’ll need no persuading to give Cassetta Del Mistero a listen whereas if you haven’t, and it all sounds a bit fanboy-ish, give it thirty seconds of the opening track and you still won’t need much persuading to listen to the rest. The whole thing is positively hypnotic, like a fever dream from the mind of Dan The Automator in Dr Octagon production mode. Another reference point might be the gloriously lo-fi production work on early Lone Ninja material which was made by Lord Beatjitzu who…just happens to be a Sacred Jade Tapes artist. What are the chances? And while he doesn’t appear as a collaborator among the twenty-one tracks that appear on Cassetta Del Mistero (at least not under that nom-de-guerre), it seems like almost everyone else in the collective does with a list of collaborators that includes Dr Shirogame, Metaphyzics, Sleptembers, Hainseville, Soul Reapa and Silver Hermit. If you need another recommendation on top of that – who can resist something that samples Hammer/ Shaw Brothers crossover classic The Legend Of The 7 Golden Vampires? Oh and it really is available in the devil’s own format of cassette tape if digital is too contemporary mainstream for you.
(Out now HERE)