The sole purpose of this month’s blog is to gently guide your collective attentions to a rather wonderful book that I was recently gifted by some like minded friends from our Monthly Music Club!

The book in question goes by the title of “High Bias…The Distorted History Of The Cassette Tape” by Marc Masters (no….me neither). Now I have been variously called a “Tapehead” or “Tape Pervert” for a number of years now and even as I sit here now writing this blog I am sitting behind what can only be described as a wall of various different types of cassette tapes. And if you, like me, have even a remote or passing interest in the format then you will love this book.

Various chapters take you through the early development and birth of the revolutionary cassette tape in the 1960s to the Walkman inspired domination of the format in the 1980s. Cheap, portable and reusable, these small plastic rectangles changed the course of music history in so many ways.

Each chapter tackles a different aspect of how far from killing music, home taping was actually responsible in so many ways for keeping it alive! The influence of cassette tape rippled through myriad scenes that the giant corporations just couldn’t control. For so many people tapes meant freedom to create, freedom to invent and perhaps most importantly, freedom to connect both with other like minded people and cultures.

the comeback has begun…chapter seven says so!

Bands like Metallica and Iron Maiden got started with self-distributed tapes, and many others followed. Over time, the recording quality improved. Bruce Springsteen’s classic album Nebraska was recorded on a four-track tape, and he famously could not make it sound better when he tried to recreate it in the recording studio. The emergence of hip-hop also owed much to the cassette. The enduring legacy of The Grateful Dead grew courtesy of the tapers that the band allowed to record their concerts and swap tapes.

With this book Marc Masters brings vividly to life the tape artists who thrive underground. The concert tapers who trade bootlegs; mixtape makers who send messages via cassette; tape hunters rescuing forgotten sounds and music; and comes bang up to date with today’s labels that reject CD and streaming and sell their music on cassette. Their stories celebrate the cassette tape as dangerous, vital and radical.

With energy, insight, and wit, Masters provides a welcome examination of an often overlooked format and cultural turning point. Go on give it a go….I loved it!

‘We Are Rewind’ in all their retro glory

Have you got a load of tapes sat at home and nothing to play them on? Or perhaps you’ve bought the latest Harry Styles or Taylor Swift albums on new cassette release? Well look no further! You can rekindle your love of the format with We Are Rewind and their series of contemporary portable cassette players. Housed in a durable and stylish metal chassis, the cassette player features an audio input to record your own tapes, a 5.1 Bluetooth output to connect to speakers or headphones, and a built-in rechargeable lithium battery that provides 12 hours of continuous playback. Available in 3 colors: Orange (SERGE), Blue (KURT) and Grey (KEITH), you can find out more Here.

Many thanks for reading…