You might remember VHS Head made a brief appearance in 2009’s very busy release schedule. His EP “Video Club” was sort of mysterious, conjuring up images of derelict technology. With “Trademark Ribbons of Gold” he continues in the same fashion.
Skam did a fairly decent job picking this guy out, though I don’t believe the rumors that state a member of Boards of Canada was involved. Much more realistically, it sounds like a project Jackson and his Computer Band might have created. The beats and editing are very similar, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he wasn’t behind this.But if he is, he's definitely improved since the last time I heard him.
Anyway, whoever created it did a good job. There are some fairly excellent tracks on here, like “Remote Control” which sort of continues into infinity. Melodies upon melodies cross and intersect to form some truly great moments. Skam really outdid them this time; I haven’t been this excited about anything from them since Gescom’s last release.
There are some things to get over with this album. For one, there are 20 tracks that go on for over an hour. Plus, the amount of ideas being juggled around might worry a casual listener. Really, you can start anywhere, but I’d probably say the aforementioned track is a good place to start, along with “Red Lens Effect” and the weird song “Franco Zoom to Nowhere” which is as bizarre as it sounds.
So ease in slowly with it, it is actually worth it. Plus, it is doubly nice for Skam to remind me of why I used to like it so much.Oh yeah, this a big grower.