CDs are, like, so last generation. Mp3s are just so outdated. So what musical releasing format has suddenly hit the mainstream like shit hitting a fan? Cassette releases, that’s what. Everyone from fanzines to the DIY masters that are the latest wave of up-and-coming bands are into it. Releasing your latest single on one of those plastic rectangular babies is like the new nu-rave, only in more colours and with much better music.
So who’s actually into this reversal back to the ‘good old days’ when a brick-sized Walkman was the latest in music-streaming technology, and why? What has drawn so many bands back to the crackly, low-quality punch that tapes throw? We caught up with cassette label/enthusiasts Maximus Extreme to get to the root of the underground music scene’s new obsession. Philip St Clair-Burke is one half of the small-time cassette record label Maximus Extreme, who release split cassettes. John Webb once told him he loved him (he’s now obsessed) and he claims to have played b-ball with Obama.
Why did you choose cassettes to release on? Are you just too cool for mainstream release or is there actually any audio benefit?
I guess that pretty much sums it up. Selling CD's seems like a rip off, I mean, one CD is nothing. CD's aint worth shit, plus I saw Will Smith on the fresh prince with a cassette (I probably dreamt it) so there was no going back. Cassettes sound nice, lo-fi or whatever it is and I wanted people to dance like it's 1985, shoulder pads and everything.
Very true, I suppose tapes seem much less disposable. It's like vinyl - they're not just there for playing the music but also they're nice to look at. They're value for the money you spend on them. Maybe you'd spend £2 on a CD then scratch it after a week, but tapes have got the novelty value as well as generally pretty sick music.
Oh for real, some people do look at it as a novelty though, the seriousness of the whole record label thing goes, which is nice. tapes are for party. Noone wants to pull out their favourite tape and listen to it every day, everyone’s way too lazy for that, me included. The only prize you'll want at a fun fair is a dead goldfish or a tape.
But maybe the whole idea of tapes being less disposable or like a retro thing you'd have from when you were a kid lends more value to the music itself.
True dat, against all the effort of not opening iTunes, listening to tape has some sweet benefits - piss poor audio quality, crackly tracks, the music sounding more and more like a Wavves album each time it's copied, no one can not like that. Have you got a Will Smith tape? The ultimate cassette - Will Smith in the summer time, what do you think?
I think you should do one. Get bands to do a Will Smith cover each then bang them all together on the most pro cassette ever made
That'll be my John bait
Hahahahaha
Paradise vendors inc. 006. I could sell the idea, win his heart.
But a lot of the bands who choose tapes to release on are pretty similar to Wavves - all guitars and bad microphones. Do you think cassettes maybe appeal to them because they're like analogue's answer to distortion pedals?
It's either one or the other really - record with some fucked up microphones, or put it onto cassette. Unless you're totally radical and do both, the whole analogue's distortion is exactly how it is. You know when you're shit at guitar when you have to have the distortion pedal on the whole time, unless you're an angry punx - then it's just a given. But it's not always the best idea to go straight to the broken mic and out-of-date technology, I'd rather listen to music recorded with a reel-to-reel and released on vinyl. I think the whole lo-fi thing can only work so much. Don't get me wrong, it can sound good, but some douches just don’t know when to stop
Yeahhhh, I suppose there's a point when the novelty wares off, when it's no longer ''omg they're so retro, how ace'' but more ''I just want to hear what they're actually playing"
Only when you're angry and punk can you get away with it
Once you can afford to record properly and use working mics using cassettes seems pretty pretentious
Unless you're Will Smith, then you can do whatever the fuck you want.
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