I had not previously heard anything by Erin Demastes, but I liked the concept behind this tape. Here is how she describes this project: “Thing Music is the culmination of a few years of studying the sonic properties of found and hacked objects. As a result, I’ve accumulated so many things, that I was having trouble organizing them into compositions. One night at 4 a.m., in some weird half-dream, I decide to organize them by color. So when you listen to “Pink” and “Orange” and “Yellow,” everything you hear on that track is the actual light-reflecting color (not some sonic mood coloring or whatever). A few notable sounds you may recognize include a milk crate, a plastic record player, rubber bands, bouncy balls, wind-up toys, a large metal spring, cellophane, styrofoam, mini Solo cups, a hose wheel, and many other talented co-stars. Why did I make this? Your guess is as good as mine. Enjoy!” This sounds like a good time, so let’s get into the music itself.

We start off with “Pink,” which is interesting, with sparse sounds of found objects and junk noise, some guitar noodling and things clattering around. A bit random, which keeps it engaging. “Orange” is a bit more composed, with some scraping plastic and some grinding bass drone. “Yellow” is more clanking sounds with a mournful drone / horn. This was a bit too sparse for my tastes. “Green” closes off the side with more found object noise with harmonica. Kind of sparse and wasn’t really my cup of tea. Imagine someone who doesn't know how to play harmonica trying it out for the first time.

Flipping the tape over, we start with “Blue,” which has some repetitive scraping that creates a kind of plodding beat that holds everything together. Some line noise and other bits of sound come together to create a cohesive composition. This is a lot more put together than some of the tracks on the previous side. “Purple” is, once again, pretty sparse, with grinding noises. Red closes off the side with bell / singing bowl tones mixed in with some junk noise. This one was quite nice.

I loved the concept, but for me the execution was a mixed bag. Some of the tracks were quite engaging (Pink, Red, Blue, Orange), while others were too sparse or just not as interesting (Yellow, Green, Purple). Of course, as with all things experimental your mileage may vary. This tape weighs in at around 31 minutes.