We featured Pet Cemetery a few weeks back, when we wrote about Amber Sweet, a great little release on Havana Tapes. Now the act, led by Playlounge’s Saam Watkins, have released an brand new EP, dietary requirements, on the ever-reliable Z Tapes. The EP offers a lesson in what has come to be referred to as “bedroom pop”, songs that have that wonderful intimacy/honesty that so often evaporates when bands get into the studio.
Opener ‘dc’ is a gentle and reflective instrumental, full of wistful lo-fi acoustics which serve as a nice intro for what’s to come, before ‘alright’ gets things started proper, a bedroom pop track that will appeal to fans of Coma Cinema with its hazy downer vocals and clap-along percussion. The lyrics speak of a narrator severed from his surroundings, a collection of abstract images and innermost thoughts jumbled together in deadpan poetry.
“Sick until my hands fell still
my brother talks more than I do
I’m tired & skipping meals
laughter fills the living room
I can’t hear it’s so loud
eyes water from rubbing outour parents hold the secrets
we’re trying to believe it”
A slower number, ‘Magick’ is just as morose, with the refrain “sit and wish for rain” filled with a little too much longing, while ‘champ’ is frustratingly fleeting, one of those songs that finishes almost as soon as its begun and has you reaching for the repeat button immediately. ‘Milk’ is even shorter, not managing to break the 30 second mark, sounding like a lost Johnny Foreigner demo recorded on a dictaphone. The song sees the narrator resorting to drastic action in an attempt to feel something:
“The treehouse we burnt down looks alright
the kids it belonged to cried & cried
i’m sick to my stomach
I feel alive tonight”
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If the music is anything to go by, arson might well have done the trick. ‘Birthmark’ is warmer, not exactly happy but definitely gravitating somewhat to the positive end of the spectrum, the heavy lo-fi guitars threatening to swamp dreamy vocals but never quite managing it. ‘Birthstone (reprise)’ sees the positivity blossom. An instrumental track based around an audio sample of Dustin Hoffman’s philosophical discourse from the film I Heart Huckabees, the track sees a sense of wonder return to what has otherwise been a drab, defeated point of view, like watching the very beginning of a sunrise over a grey familiar city that can still surprise you in certain lights.
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The final track ‘spirit world’ is once again instrumental, this time with electric guitars and shiny shimmering background atmospherics. As a finale it feels mightily hopeful, a far cry from the glumness that pervades a lot for this genre (and even the beginning of this EP), and leaves the release with a strange, vaguely transcendental aftertaste, a feeling which would make life much easier if only you could experience it at all times. The overall effect is one of change, a gradual warming, as if the narrator is being drawn through the vacuous space of depression and apathy to somewhere brighter and more fulfilling. Maybe he finally “got” the blanket thing.
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You can get dietary requirements on cassette or as a name-your-price digital download via the Z Tapes Bandcamp page. If you can, get a cassette, because tapes are cool.