Despite its prog-baiting length and sonic density, the centerpiece of Bill Baird’s newest cassette is a concentrated pop distillate with endearing bouts of hairbrush hamming. The song is a compound of three jukebox singles with parallel structures, each bleeding together through feedback manipulation and multi-tracked Muppet drums. The fragments themselves are dilating pills of pop tropes: bubblegum beach party na-na-na, back-to-back glam guitar riffing, and “Hey Jude” lighter waving fade out, among others. There seems to be a wink behind all the root-position major chord shifts and single string pull-offs, with Baird’s unassuming vocal delivery shrugging within scissor-kicking instrumental theatrics and a giant wall of sound. Given the guy’s an MFA-wielding electronic composer (and a Satie arrangement closes this cassette), the song becomes an autopsy of The Hook. The result is a Frankenstein monster that still gets the blood pumping.

Grab a copy through Moon Glyph.