Very hard to tell if Massage & Spa (ROPE WORM RW2) is some sort of post-ironic joke; it’s not even presented as an album of music, rather as “a 60-minute relaxation system”, with track titles that refer directly to things you might find in a massage parlour, a place where I’ve never been; for instance ‘Gentle Aromas’ and ‘Sterilized Headrest’. Its creator is John-Peter Hasson of Seattle (now living in LA), a fellow who is indeed a musician but also equally successful in cinema, multimedia, and comedy. He started off making comedy records, but has gone on to work with serious punk and grunge bands like Soundgarden and The Dead Milkmen, besides engaging in projects with Neil Hamburger, a stand-act comedy persona created by Gregg Turkington and popular with American audiences since the 1990s.
Today’s record is a reissue, believe it or not, of a 2021 record which Hasson – appearing as JP Inc. – put on his Bandcamp page. I’m unable to find any aesthetic value in this boring, faceless ambient drivel, still less in its cover which resembles a box of soap or talc from Cussons, but I suspect that’s besides the point. The label are pushing this one as “New Age”, a genre which I thought had been widely discredited, and one which has never really held any appeal to me personally. There may be a video component to this too, but I haven’t looked into it. A nauseating release that insults its audience. (13/09/2023)