Tape Music

To break the cycle of my film, I’ll break away to a similar but different medium. Magnetic tape. Before I was ever interested in film, I was deeply interested in tape music. I began to buy all the cassettes I could get my hands on, and all the tape players too. I began to learn about how to achieve certain sounds with tape, and found a large community of people doing the same. Most notable is a German ambient/electronic music producer and composer, Hainbach. I specifically loved his introduction to cassette music.

The resurgence of tape has been a really interesting to watch. The increase in market demand for tape and tape players has created an incredibly lucrative marketplace. Not too many people are making tape players anymore, and most the ones of today are cheaply made. The secondhand market is immensely important to anyone looking to get into tape.

I find that I really enjoy the lo-fidelity qualities of tape music. The limited bandwidth of the medium lends itself to a warm, and nostalgic sounding musical experience. This is why people have really gravitated towards it. This, and the limited capabilities becomes a creative incentive for those daring enough to mess with tape.

All in all, tape is a strange medium. It’s resurgence its as confusing as it is captivating. I really believe this is due to the fleeting nature of tape. Tape itself degrades over time, and these players won’t last forever. There is a sort of “in the moment” aspect to tape. It’s here for now, and gone tomorrow. If you have a player and some tapes laying around, give them a shot. They often feel like old memories. If you are really interested in new tape music and how people are using it as a compositional tool, check out some of my favorites like William Basinski, Amulets (who also has a great YouTube Channel), and of course, Hainbach.