Music
Today's most boundary-pushing music is being released on tape – here are the labels doing it.
In the early ‘90s, cassette tapes were everywhere. This was the golden age of rave – but if you wanted to listen to full sets by your favourite superstars DJs you couldn’t just fire up Soundcloud or tap in the Boiler Room URL. Instead, you’d head to the dance section of your local record shop, where you could buy soundboard recordings in the form of massive multi-cassette packs – luridly coloured boxes with futuristic graphics, titled things like Energy, Pandemonium or Dance Paradise.
With the advent of the CD, and then the MP3, it looked like the cassette tape had had its day. But in the last few years, the humble cassette has enjoyed a revival that few could have predicted. Partly, this is thanks to a blurring of the boundaries between dance music and the experimental/noise scene, which was pumping out ultra-obscure cassettes years before they gained hipster cachet. More generally, the cassette tape has become an attractive reminder of the pleasures of physical music – cheap and easy to duplicate, with a cute, lo-fidelity aesthetic.
Below, how dance music on cassette used to sound…
Now, cassette labels like Reel Torque, Trilogy Tapes and LA Club Resource are releasing a steady stream of limited-edition tapes that feel naturally suited to their peculiar format. There’s an element of nostalgia to it all but also a spirit of play and invention. In a throwback to the methods of the rave scene, the UK label Chinstroke recently released a massive 12-tape box titled Chinscape – a homage to tireless rave-era promoters Dreamscape, featuring breakcore favourites Jason Forrest and Henry 'Shitmat' Collins among many others.
It’s clear by now that the cassette revival isn’t just a fad. Scroll down to check out five labels staking out territory of their own.
Opal Tapes (link)
You'd hardly describe this Newcastle-based label as publicity-hungry: Stephen Bishop, who runs it and records under the name Basic House, politely declined to be interviewed for this article. However, Opal Tapes might be the most significant label going right now when it comes to techno cassette action. Launching in 2012 with a collaboration between Tuff Sherm (who you may know better as wonky bass music fella Dro Carey) and PMM, it's racked up around 80 releases. Highlights include the off-centre house jams of Perfume Advert, Kiki The Wormhole by brilliant London-based American producer Karen Gwyer and a brand new, blistering four-track EP by Scottish techno duo Clouds.
Check out: Perfume Advert – +200 Gamma
Tesla Tapes (link)
Operated by Paddy Shine of Mancunian psychedelic ensemble Gnod, Tesla Tapes serves as an outlet for the many Gnod side-projects, plus all kinds of good folks they've encountered in the global underground network. Check out the super-slow abstract hip-hop of Live Low, the heavy beats and street poetry of Michael O'Neill, or Run Dust's three tapes of unruly techno clatter.
“The thing about cassette is that even if the material is noisy and lo-fi, the tape allows it to sound soulful and great. It's an inexpensive way to share music that's a bit more personal than sending a free download code. For a few years, I was really excited about the kind of punk approach to techno that was happening worldwide and I wanted to pass that on.”
Check out: Run Dust & Barry Brush – Dida
Orange Milk (link)
The brainchild of Ohio resident Keith Rankin (who records as Giant Claw) and Seth Graham, Orange Milk has released dozens of tapes wrapped in amazing digital artwork, as lurid as the label name. You’ll find epic synth instrumentals, outsider electro-pop and curdled trap beats within – plus heavy support of Japan’s footwork scene via DJ Fulltono, Foodman and the Chitokyo tape by Chicago’s EQ Why.
“My favourite experiences with the format were making radio mixtapes or bootlegging albums, and I think there is a little bit of nostalgia mixed up in that process. Music helps define our sense of self, and having objects like cassettes around is a reassuring physical manifestation of identity. Sometimes it's easier to make truly experimental music when you're twisting an established trope, like injecting silence into rhythmic expectation – it's that sort of freedom and playfulness that I love in a dance music context.”
Check out: DJ Fulltono – My Mind Beats
Far Away Tapes (link)
As well as hosting monthly parties in LA under the Far Away name, Cooper Saver uses his contact book to coax guest mixtapes from myriad respected DJs. As of early 2014, some of these became actual tapes, starting with a cosmic selection from Mike Simonetti. Brooklyn house head Jacques Renault, lush Frenchman Joakim and discofied Brit duo Mind Fair have since joined the fray.
“Of course there's been a resurgence in releasing albums on tape again, but there hasn't been a strong presence of actual DJ mixes on tape today so that idea is exciting to me. I find that the artists I approach with the idea end up taking their mix much more seriously when the physical release factor comes to mind. I love that warmly saturated, compressed sound that comes out of tape. It's very human and comfortable – it feels right.”
Check out: Jacques Renault – Far Away Tapes 002
Krokodilo Tapes (link)
A cassette-only sublabel of Kiran Sande’s label Blackest Ever Black, Krokodilo is as exquisitely gloomy as its bigger sibling. Splicing danceable club sounds and obscure noise sonics, several releases have taken the form of blink-and-they’re-sold-out mixtapes. Krokodilo also issued the first physical release by Hamburg’s techno breakout champ Helena Hauff, a 90-minute mix titled Obscure Object.
“My earliest interactions with music were cassette-based: recording mates' CD albums off them, and then later making elaborate mixtapes for girls. When I got a little older I became more aware of drum’n’bass and garage tape pack culture. I only really started buying tapes again a little later in life, when I was exploring noise and power electronics and fringe psychedelia. Having got the hang of releasing records, I wanted to do something relatively small-scale and handmade – it was a Tony Hart moment, an excuse to bust out the Pritt Stick and scissors.”
Check out: Helena Hauff – Obscure Object