Stephen Mejias

Two more recent articles on the cassette tape revival: The Los Angeles Times tells us “Cassette tapes are back in the mix,” while Fact Mag offers “Cassette Playa: in praise of tapes.”

Both articles make interesting points.

From the LA Times:

And yet across pockets of America and especially among shoestring record labels, DJs and boutique stores in Los Angeles, this weird uncle [the cassette] is again a welcome guest. A tiny but busy tape-based music culture is growing from roots in economic necessity, thrift-store crate-digging and, yes, a pride in being difficult for its own sake.

From Fact Mag:

It’s no secret that the cassette is enjoying a renaissance in underground music culture; an enduring staple of the global noise and industrial scenes, the cassette has since become the favoured medium for a whole new generation of artists, from “hypnagogic” psychedelicists to bedroom pop eccentrics—nostalgia and an inherent fondness for the esoteric play a part in this, certainly, but the nub of it all remains the cheapness and ease with which tapes can be recorded and copies made.

And while I still haven’t picked up a good cassette deck, my cassette collection has grown (a lot), and later this week, I’ll be stopping by Hospital Productions where I hope to find a copy of Cold Cave’s New Morale Leadership. Copies of this cassette, limited to 300, were given away during an April performance at Le Poisson Rouge. (They’re probably sold out, but, if so, I’m sure there will be something else for me at Hospital.)