• 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 [...]

  • 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 [...]