Streetworker - Streetworker [Wheaton]

Streetworker is the musical moniker of Kevin Salyers from Wheaton Records. He's a modest fellow it seems. How modest? This tape which is a pretty great 20 minute chunk of drone is limited to a scant 11 copies! Chances are you probably won't get your hands on one but it's in print as I write this and maybe getting this review up will inspire a repress of, I don't know, more than 11 copies.
Side A consists of a single track, "20091014." The piece has a hard-to-place vibe somewhere between glistening and airy and cybernetic. There's a shimmering crackle at the center that sounds like something out The Matrix or any number of sci-fi movies. More subtle layers of sound surround and snake through that crackling until it exits completely leaving the ghost of the piece that had been following all along. It's not a particularly active piece but a nice one to drift off to. And it doesn't go too far down the "ambient/ethereal" path which is a bit refreshing.
I really like the second side which was recorded a couple years earlier. "20071014" has a much smokier, more maximal feel where even though it's a very loud piece there is so silence to be found. A ton of layers mingle creating a thick fog, but all the sounds are so distant it's difficult to decipher what I'm actually hearing. After a minute or two a simple gliding melody pops up which is augmented by what sounds to me like samples of a cheering crowd in a stadium. The track all of a sudden gets agitated with various pulsing drones and a dark undertow attempting suck everything down with it into its static grave. It plays like the soundtrack to a collapsing black hole, if it were possible for sound to exist anywhere near a collapsing black hole. The piece ends with an eerie calm and soft crackling hiss. Well played, sir.
Definitely a strong tape for any drone-minded individual and I'm curious to see what else Streetworker has up his sleeve. Just next time make it more than 11 copies, okay? Luckily, there appear to be some still available. It's nice looking as well, a fully clear tape in a light pink j-card with another transparent j-card overtop.