Photo: Teen River, a cassette-only label.
I’ve discussed my (apparently controversial) attraction to cassettes. Besides being affordable, fun, pretty, and filled with interesting sounds and art, cassettes provide a direct and meaningful connection between artist and audience: The person releasing cassettes in 2012 is likely doing so out of passion, with a spirit for adventure, perhaps even a with a distaste for modern technologies and conveniences; the person purchasing cassettes in 2012 probably has similar motivations and interests.
I like cassettes. Most important to me, cassettes often contain sounds that can’t be found on any other format. If I want to hear music made by certain artists—Great Slave Lake, Talk Normal, and Glory Girls come to mind, but there are countless others—I have to listen to cassettes. I want to listen to cassettes. This is not a discussion about sound quality; it’s a discussion about music.
Over the last few years, new record labels specializing in cassettes have been popping up all over the place, and even a few of the larger independent labels—Sub Pop and Domino, for instance—have decided to release certain material on cassette. I’ve enjoyed watching interest in the format grow.
