There’s an uprising in the works. You’ve probably noticed: labels like Goaty and Arbor, Bathetic and FLA, Clan Destine and Night People, even Sub Pop for chrissakes, are throwing down tape releases left and right. Old-school noise, modern sugar-pop, whatever–genre doesn’t matter. It’s about honesty, intimacy. Visceral and meticulously crafted art, from the music itself to the packaging surrounding it. Bands record on a dime, kids hunt and trade and suddenly we’ve spun backwards to the glory days of Sound of Pig and American Tapes, when art usurped all and money…well, who cared about that?

And maybe it’s a passing fad—the wave of cultural appetite, after all, always crests and breaks—but modern tape culture remains among the most poignant microcosms of the indie underground: a small circle of labels, bands, collectors and artists working together on something with no immediate future. And in a time when YouTube kickstarts careers and everyone wants a shot at something bigger, better, more, that’s no small thing. Tapes are the natural opposite of our generation’s mass desires, lo-fi in the face of tech-driven, intimate next to Facebook’s public life, difficult to snag when most else is available via one click of a mouse. Plus, they’re cool. They’re fun. They just matter. Oh tapes, how we love thee. Let us list the ways.

Countinue reading Cassette Culture: Why Tapes Matter (click here).

Or download a PDF of this article here.

- Rue Sauvage