2x****
Working the psychedelic space rock, Rebekah's Tape makes heavy use of the delay, especially in opening track "Blushing Is Muy Bueno". Here the carefully arranged screeching feedback gives way to a kind of poorly sung U2. "Grilled Cheese Sandwii" also has kind of an 80's Flock of Seagulls new wave thing, and it is sunk by pretty much the same issue. A little more polish could have rescued these and other well-constructed songs. You can't fault the ambition of these early attention grabbers, or the better atmospheric pieces such as "Neon Blue". The deliberate atonality of "Labor Day" could be pretentious, but giving them the benefit of the doubt, the muddy production makes the breakdowns sound amateurish when they could have been interesting. And nothing can save the irritating "Yoj", obviously built around a recording of someone's baby. The real gems come at the end; "Time Wasters"**** has an interesting mathematical melodicism that is memorable, and the wailing riff in "Vessels"**** cuts through the spacey chords. (The 22-minute hidden track is as pointless as any)
Rebekah's Tape Is Professionalism is a misnomer if ever there was one. "Itch Party" at least moves, with an off-beat organ part as a focus, as does the end of unnecessarily 14-minute "D. Petri", but the rest are slow and atmospheric, basically excuses to fuck around with delay, and the unambitiously-recorded "Still Silent" and randomly assembled untitled final track have have even less to recommend them.
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