tapes!

i buy far more cassette releases than any other format.

and i'm sure i'm not alone here.

so, what tape releases does watmm buy?

the last 3 i got:

Pyramids - WVNDRKMMER

Afterlife/Bedroom - Split

Charlatan - Romances

all awesome stuff!!!

now show some love for the tapes!

i make a lot more tapes than i buy, but i have collected some pretty good weirdo releases from the local noise shop and ye olde weekly flea market

most of the stuff i buy is real cheap old sample-fodder from thrift stores. i've been thinking of starting an archive.org account and uploading a bunch of the stuff i've ripped over the last few years.. there's some pretty good audio books (richard nixon reads his own stories, redwall on tape, the godfather on tape, etc) that could probably stand to be exposed to more people.

some tapes i've put together and put on consignment around town:

fuckin hell those look amazing!!!

those tranquil tapes look nice. how do they sound?

  On 8/4/2010 at 9:40 PM, Benedict Cumberbatch said:

those tranquil tapes look nice. how do they sound?

click on the pics

I just know this thread is going to kill my bank account, I can't resist buying tapes.

  On 8/4/2010 at 9:27 PM, kokoon said:

fuckin hell those look amazing!!!

thanks! if you're interested i'll make and send you one (all i ask is the cost of shipping)

  Quote

I was so close to ordering that when it came out, mainly because I already own two releases by Pyramid and I'm a big fan of Bass Communion and Fear Falls Burning. How is it?

The only tape I've got one from a Copenhagen folk artist called Needledaddy. 100 copies were made.

hmm, i was thinking of doing a pselodux cassette release but didn't think anyone would be interested. now i'm thinking otherwise!

  On 8/4/2010 at 10:07 PM, luke viia said:

  On 8/4/2010 at 9:27 PM, kokoon said:

fuckin hell those look amazing!!!

 

thanks! if you're interested i'll make and send you one (all i ask is the cost of shipping)

I'll take one.

  On 8/5/2010 at 12:07 AM, modey said:

hmm, i was thinking of doing a pselodux cassette release but didn't think anyone would be interested. now i'm thinking otherwise!

I'm interested!

sweet! PM on the way.

after opening this thread i decided I'd try to commit the song I'm working on to tape using my stereo.

long story short, the tape and the stereo don't work now.

hipster alert

*puts on shutter shades*

I only have 2 of these new Cassette releases:

Dem Hunger - "Caveman Smack"

and

Ras G - "El-Aylien Part 1"

both from

that ras g release was really tempting.

i got a few tapes in the past several months:

the new james pants album!

a woodsist compilation!

the real estate - reality record/cassette rerelease combo!

etc!

i'm not sure where i sit with cassettes at this point. i don't think i've heard a lot of music recently that warrants the medium. new boc?

BOCBOCBOCBOCBOCBOCBOC

...why use cassete?

Other than for your producing your own music cheaply, or because you want some rare demo or something?

Really, what's the point?

I understad why people prefer vinyl, cd or digital, but untill this thread I hadn't even heard tape mentioned as a preferred format...

  On 8/5/2010 at 7:33 AM, mrguy said:

...why use cassete?

 

Other than for your producing your own music cheaply, or because you want some rare demo or something?

 

Really, what's the point?

 

I understad why people prefer vinyl, cd or digital, but untill this thread I hadn't even heard tape mentioned as a preferred format...

the artefacts and noise are enjoyable.

honestly, people can claim to like a format better because its the highest quality, but they'd be kidding themselves. people enjoy certain formats because of how they make them feel.

  On 8/5/2010 at 7:33 AM, mrguy said:

...why use cassete?

 

Other than for your producing your own music cheaply, or because you want some rare demo or something?

 

Really, what's the point?

 

I understad why people prefer vinyl, cd or digital, but untill this thread I hadn't even heard tape mentioned as a preferred format...

the same reason people prefer vinyl over digital, or to stretch it really far, the same reason some nerds prefer analog synths over digital synths - the medium affects the overall aesthetic.

from mix and beat tapes to underground cassette culture of the 70s and 80s, the medium definitely has strong connotations, historically, (sub)culturally and aesthetically. some music is really complimented by the cassette tape for those reasons.

  On 8/5/2010 at 7:33 AM, mrguy said:

...why use cassete?

 

Other than for your producing your own music cheaply, or because you want some rare demo or something?

 

Really, what's the point?

 

I understad why people prefer vinyl, cd or digital, but untill this thread I hadn't even heard tape mentioned as a preferred format...

From a musician's perspective on this - I personally enjoy making music intended for cassettes because it's a similar thing to writing for sides of vinyl, but obviously tapes are super cheap and vinyl is super pricy so I've almost looked to tapes as the poor man's vinyl pressing. Beyond that, some music recorded initially TO tape (i.e. on a four track recorder) can lose a lot of that charm when placed on a CD. Keeping tape music on cassette tapes as a format is sometimes out of respect to the music itself.

But that's just me.

Ceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeland

  On 8/5/2010 at 7:33 AM, mrguy said:

...why use cassete?

 

Other than for your producing your own music cheaply, or because you want some rare demo or something?

 

Really, what's the point?

 

I understad why people prefer vinyl, cd or digital, but untill this thread I hadn't even heard tape mentioned as a preferred format...

i really love the sound of tape degradation. or any degradation from an analog format. and as someone else in this thread said, vinyl is too expensive to produce, so in the meantime my way to degrade my music in an analog way is to use tape.

i can't wait until i have enough money to put out a vinyl release. just so i can hold on to it for 20 years and hear how it's degraded, heh.

vinyl has an argument because it has superior frequency response.

CD/digital because it allows for more dynamic range.

cassette - because sounding tinny as fuck is awesome.

the tapes i've recently bought are a few co_rd tapes from milieu (hi brian), and everything from hakobune's tobira records ambient label. though i need to get a decent tape player, any recommendations?

RAWR