Plugs:
"These are my tapes. Cassette tapes have so many interesting and pleasing qualities to them from the perspective of both the consumer, and the creator/s. Speaking from the position of the consumer, I’m always amazed by the little gems that I find hidden on this format, gems that are often difficult/impossible to track down in other formats like Vinyl and Digital. Some of this stuff only exists on tape, it lives here and nowhere else. There’s also something stylistically pleasing (and highly sought after in scrappy digital emulations) in the distortion, constant hiss, and less clean equalization curve, often losing some of the crystal clear highs and round powerful lows that are possible in other formats. It’s puzzling, but it’s satisfying, to me anyway. There’s also a higher risk factor than buying records in my experience, as most record stores don’t have listening decks (whereas vinyl you are able to preview on turntables in store) - so you really have to pick the tape up, absorb the artwork, read as much information as the j-card provides, and make a decision based almost entirely on the artwork or aesthetic qualities. Sometimes this can be misleading, so sometimes you pick up a tape that looks like an acid-techno release, and when you get home and pop it in your system - it’s some weird-ass experimental lullaby deal. Really cool.
Speaking from the position of the creator, tapes are a beautiful format to work with. They are somewhat temperamental in nature, but once some of the physical limitations have been worked out, there is a lot you can do that cassettes really lend themselves to. For us as a label releasing cassettes, one of the most fun parts of putting together our compilations is messing around with extra material - finding strange sounds and miniature excerpts to splice between tracks, cool little transitions that give the tape constant movement, hinting at direction and even tipping the hat to some of our influences.
I love my tapes. I can’t boil it down to the artwork, the sound, the legwork or the risk-factor. It’s all of it. This mix is a selection of some of my most prized tracks from some tapes that I hold close to my heart. If you don’t own a tape-deck or a walkman, buy one. Buy some tapes. Check it out, you might like it." - Sedgwick
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