Cassette Gods
 Issue #4

I remember the first time I heard a poorly recorded cassette transferred to CDr. I thought it was really fucking funny... or actually, really compelling. The sound of a song warbling from poor magnetism or hiss riding over a low recordings and cymbals shattering into analogue red peak... all being captured on a cdr. Yes, I was laughing out loud with that particular type of joy that a goldminer has when striking gold, or the scientists that found the cure for AIDS years ago had (shortly before being murdered by the US government).  What I mean is, the first time I heard a shitty cassette put onto a cdr was a very pivotal and happy moment for me as a musician. For the first time I had empirical evidence that cassettes were more than a clumsy format, but a true medium begging to be worked with by artistic hands.  Don't get me wrong, even at that tender age I was aware of the long history of magnetic tape manipulation as musical instrument. I'm making a distinction though between instrument and medium though... I'm talking about the difference between drawing a hot sports car in graphite and painting a hot sports car in airbrush. If the same artist made both, you probably could tell that they were both made by the same hand... and obviously they'd both be hot sports cars. But the tone and atmosphere surrounding each work would still be distinctly different. 
When it comes to working with the cassette medium, there is more than just the 2 sides/variable length/portability issues that are important. The fidelity is shaping the listener's experience in a way that is not just textural, but essential, emotional, and psychological. While tapes that have ultra-crisp fidelity are a miracle to behold, it is the ones that somehow find success as murky mush plops that excite me the most.  I'm not saying this an excuse for people to put out crappy tapes. Never! But there just happen to be some acts that work well with some added mystery, some "fuck being clean cut," some confusion, some nasty distortion! These are the golden characteristics of the cassette medium. This is the reason that cassettes were doomed as a major label medium. This is why I'm hot. Or perhaps I'm just leading into the Transitory Magnetism piece??? Only my html editor knows for sure.

- Brian Miller