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Headphones Please: House Of Tapes

Nagoya project House Of Tapes’ music can probably be enjoyed via speakers, whether they be high-end or of the laptop variety. I’d test it, but everyone in my apartment complex is probably sleeping right now. Regardless, House Of Tapes should be experienced on headphones because it sounds terrifying that way. I use “terrifying” in the best way possible – most house music aims to have the listener moving (an admirable goal, of course) but House Of Tapes wants to crush the listener with noise. “Another Space” opens with what at first brush seems like a safe enough four-on-the-floor beat, but then the electronic strokes soon glide across and become more and more compressing, some of the digital burbles in the mix sounding like something fit for a Stanley Kubrick movie. “Starting Point” continues House Of Tapes’ sonic crushing, the revving noises tightening around your ears before bursts of green light emerge. Imagine the walls closing in on you, but in an enjoyable sort of way.