Jason Drake has come to considerable notoriety in the past four years under his nom du beat as Cassettes Won’t Listen. Drake created his first stir when he presented CWL as an actual band and invented fictional bios for his electropop “foursome,” but eventually copped to the ruse. Drake’s work on his initial releases has attracted so much critical acclaim that he’s been offered some high profile remix opportunities, giving artists like Dr. Octagon, Morcheeba, Midlake and Brookville his own personal chopsonic treatment. For Small-Time Machine, his first traditional CWL release (everything to this point has been download only), Drake downplays guitars for an almost exclusively synthesized atmosphere, layering sheets of electronic sound into a virtual synth pop symphony. Although Drake’s voice could hardly be considered another instrument in the mix, his charmingly vulnerable delivery and lyrical naivete works well in the context of the blip-and-grind soundscape he’s created on Small-Time Machine. The delicate interplay between piano and synth builds to incredibly effective crescendos, as on the melancholy snap/crackle/pop of “Large Radio,” the Radiohead-meets-Postal Service drive of “Paper Float” and the Moby-channels-Brian Wilson melodicism of “Freeze and Explode.” While it may be true that Drake has previously created more compellingly interesting work in his Cassettes Won’t Listen persona, Small-Time Machine exudes the sound of an electronic auteur exploring the simple pop side of his equation and finding the simple bliss therein.
--Brian Baker
