i_struck_a_match_in_the_dark raze the clear cassette promises twenty reflective recordings. ten on each side. no information is given about the albums these songs were sourced from. the jacket shows a single smiling face. a hematoma of text tickles the bandleader's forehead. attempts to punch up the raw material with lustrous eq curves and a thin blanket of reverb only serve to make the music seem more haunted. even the moments that swing feel like they're fighting against the impulse to fall apart. every horn player and bassist and crooner who left their sweat and spit on these tracks is dead. they live on in the memories of those who knew them and haven't yet joined them as nameless planets swimming in the ether, and in moments like the shuddering saxophone at the end of this hymn for a single starlit moment. it doesn't matter how many times i hear that melody. i can't stop mistaking it for the sound of the singer crying in key. 230628 what's it to you? who go blather from