3 out of 5

Label: Sucata Tapes

Produced by: Vicki Bennett

Utterly attention-grabbing, fascinating, mesmerizing – but pretty squarely cut-and-paste experimental – found-soundwork from genius Vicki Bennett as People Like Us.

Interestingly, Side A of this cassette – Radio On The Radio – being a new collage of works collated between 1992 and 2000, is much more relistenable than side B’s two earlier tracks, Guide To Broadcasting and I’m 89.  Side B’s stuff is fun (and I’m 89 is pretty funny), but they both stick to a fairly narrow “script” in terms of focus of the samples, and lack the strange rhythm of sound that emerges from all the various radio snippets tied together on side A.

Bennett’s work is miraculous in any format, but the B-side of this compilation is more of a curiosity listen; side A has that kind of rapturous oddball synchronicity to it that makes it into a “song,” despite being chopped up bits and pieces of interviews on, uh, cheese, and a billion other bits and bobs.