Tapes

Tough Times: Times It Up (A Multiplication Rap)

Straight from the halls of Thomas A Edison Middle School in Brighton MA comes the mathematical beatbox  wizardry of Danny Taylor, Brian Smith, Jack Accime and Kenny Gulfield! Yes, these are Tough Times and it is time to Times It Up! Brian, you know your eights? [Audio clip: view full post to listen]

Macho Alex: The Funk

This is a cassette that I bought off of a kid named Alex who I went to middle school with in Pacific Grove CA, back in the mid nineties. We were about 12 years old when it came out. He would sell them at recess for two dollars and my copy has been sitting in […]

Jeff Clarkson – Forward Looking

This cassette was released in 1987 and is the second PINA release (Butterfly from 1986 was the first) by Jeff Clarkson who is something of a pioneer of New Age Music in New Zealand. Clarkson had previously had a career as a pop musician in New Zealand but since the mid-80s has been following his […]

Rhythm Section – Nice N Easy

Truth be told, I purchased this cassette a couple years ago on the promise of one measly songtitle “Pimpers Paradise” hoping for G-Funk or something. Now that I look at the other song-titles, it should have been pretty obvious to me that this was 80s (90s?!) Reggae or Soca, and quite likely deep doo doo. […]

Year 2000: Future Generation

Year 2000 released this cassette in 1990. Shockingly banal, yes. Facile, but earnest. Don’t give up too soon – the temperature rises in the 2nd stanza. The first time I played this tape, I was looking for some make-out music. I took a chance. Needless to say, our make-out session didn’t flow too well. Frequent […]

Chris Campbell – Meetings With Remarkable Alloys

This 1987 cassette / CD release appears at a glance to be some sort of world fusion atrocity, but the Gurdjieff reference in the title turns out to be a very good thing indeed. It’s a consistently intense album with far more melody and direction than most bowl recordings, which are always pretty to listen […]

Robert "Killer" Fields – S/T

Who is Robert “Killer” Fields? That is a legitimate question. To be honest, I have no idea. I do know that in 1986 he decided to make a tape. A very homemade tape.  The first side of this cassette is a complete genre fuck. Mr. Fields lets loose with nine tracks of raunchy and vulgar […]

Becket G. Senchur, O.S.B: Music For Electronic Synthesizers

I’ve been unable to piece much together about this musician or the original performance of this cassette recording. It seems that Becket G. Senchur is (was) a member of The Order of Saint Benedict and this is a recording from one of his concerts at the Basilica of Saint Vincent Archabbey in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. The […]

Driven Element (Various Artists)

From around 1982 until about 1991 (dates are unclear) Marcel Dion ran a weekly Electronic/Experimental/Avant-Garde radio show on CJSR (campus/community radio station in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada) called Departures. It’s always unclear with campus/community radio how large your audience is and so it’s unknown how popular the show was. However, what is clear is that it […]