SALLY JESSE RAPHAEL
“Holiday” C20 (Colossal Tapes)



I am in the shadow of Colossal Tapes. See what I did there? I took an existing property, Shadow of the Colossus, a “video” game from PlayStation’s third console (or PS3), and turned it into a clever reference. But don’t let me spoil the reference for you with over-explanation – Colossal Tapes is huge and I have to defeat it by listening to all of its releases. That or by bashing it repeatedly in its conspicuously glowing orb-y part.

I’m going to bash Sally Jesse Raphael in its conspicuously glowing orb-y part too, but first I’m-a listen to this C20, that is, Holiday, a super-limited release – seriously, only 25 made, son! Sally is someone or something from Pasadena, California, which is where Colossal Tapes is also from (total coincidence I’m sure), and who or which makes violently catchy improvisations using turntables, samplers, and tape loops. This is noise with a vibe – case in point, the rhythm of “Never on a Sunday” sounds like someone shaking a can of spray paint while choirs of cheerful imps ooh and ahh through about 50 years of static. Think that’s weird? “Maybelle” hints at hip hop – I know! – before settling into a tinny sample blob of beautiful space gunk.

Sally Jesse Raphael exists within an unholy vortex where Leyland Kirby’s Caretaker and a fully Bermuda-moded Eric Copeland unite across space and time to form a unique space beast (and specifically so on the amazeballs “Barcelona”). Actually, Holiday sounds like the aural equivalent of the real Sally Jesse, present day, tankini-clad and beckoning under a tropical night sky. Try to get that image out of your head while pooch-scooching naked over a sand dune. I won’t lie, if this is happening to you, you may have been drugged, or you may even be dead. But fear not, because you can take Colossal Tapes releases with you to the other side! I read that in the Bible somewhere.

Now on to the rest of Colossal Tapes’s discography! I wonder if I’ll have to climb the next one to smash its head or if I can just hit it with a bow and arrow.




--Ryan “Terminal Velocity” Masteller