In the 1980s, cassette labels played a vital role in the distribution of underground music, most notably in the noise, industrial, and punk scenes of the time. Easy and relatively inexpensive to produce, cassettes became a common format for the circulation of music lacking popular appeal. Although the majors produced cassettes as well, many of the producers of these underground labels saw their DIY business model as a stance against the greed of the mainstream music industry. Connections made through distribution and information sharing among the artists and musicians in these circles helped to establish a network for those involved.
In the age of GarageBand, Myspace, and file sharing, it may come as a surprise to some that cassette labels are still very much in operation. Tapes now function as a basic form of patronage between musicians and their audience; since a physical format is no longer necessary to send or receive music, these objects become a gesture of support. Tapes act to make tangible the connection between a creator and their listeners, and the attentive and often handmade packaging speaks to this exchange. One instance of this relationship is revealed in the description provided for the Gilgongo Records “Singular Set” series, a run of cassette releases recorded directly onto the tape by the musician in an edition of one. Gilgongo’s James Fella explains that for the project, “…the emphasis is on reaching out and sharing something specific with one other person, that an unrepeated portion of time and creation was individually cut and passed on to one other person to hold onto as their own.”
Cassettes also yield a grainy, degraded sound quality, an aspect that has its own appeal. The draw to this sound can be read as a type of nostalgia, Paul Hegarty in “The Hallucinatory Life of Tape” writes:
Within the dying of media comes the passing or slow dying of individual units - tapes, records, cylinders, cartridges - all of which decay, and in so doing, seem to take on characteristics of having lived. Once digital media arrive as ‘other’, as cyborg sound, the analogue seems to breathe, however rasping the sound. Nostalgia and melancholy imbue formats in general and individual items with pneuma (the essential lifeforce or breath of everything in the universe, according to the Stoics).
Thus, the interest in cassette releases today can, in part, be understood as a response to the proliferation of digital media. Within the realm of experimental music, where the sonic and aesthetic attributes of technological decay hold a particular importance and history, one could argue that the current emphasis on cassette releases extends from this lineage, now only heightened by the influence and expanse of digital media. (Perhaps for this reason many of the labels below would fall under the “experimental” or “noise” category.)
In an effort to provide a snapshot of this active community, I’ve decided to compile a list of 101 contemporary cassette labels as a resource. Feel free to insert additional links in the comments field.
American Tapes
Image: The D.L Savings T.X "Cleopatra...Ruler of the Yard"
Yeay! Tapes
Image: Bromp Treb "Bricktown Shuffle"
Period Tapes
Image: Mother Flock, Untitled
Really Coastal
Image: Antique Brothers, "Hot Shit"
Pizza Night
Image: Jeff Host, "In Memoriam: Joybubbles"
Gift Tapes
Image: Brother Raven, diving into the pineapple portal
Night People
Image: Sewn Leather - "s/t"
Young Tapes
Image: Steve Young "Wedge of Light"
Slime City Tapes
Image: Various Artists, "THE BLEND" CASSETTE
Open Range Records
Image: Vesuvan - Swamp Doctor
Drone Errant Cassettes
Image: NIGHTMOVES U.K. "RECORDS & GOLD"
Near Tapes
Image: Knitted Abyss, 'Summer Barn'
Midori Records
Image: the Midori Box Set
Jugular Forest
Image: mirror to mirror, "rerest"
Attic Cassettes
Image: Attic Cassettes
Rayon Records
Image: Mariners/ Head Effort split
Sloow Tapes
Image: Benjamin Franklin, Splitsing
Ruido Horrible
Image: Le Scrambled Debutante
Sky Fi
Image: Dead Luke CS
bumtapes
Image: BURNT HILLS, Blunt Greeper
Ick Ick Records
THE VIBRARIANS, "get out of town"
kindertapes
Image: f_oeuf, "dieu est un oeuf"
Split Tapes
Image: OLD BLOOD / TWIN LION SPLIT CASSETTE
Darbolistic Rex
Image: BONUS BEAST - RASTAFARIAN BACK SCRATCHER
Trapdoor Tapes
Ark Tarp
Image: JULIE BO, COLLECTED SONGS 2007 - 2009
Tapetektoniks
Image: UUHUU "buch"
Blossom Rust Tapes
Image: kinit her - menial as archivists & bone marrow artifacts
Peasant Magik
Image: Expo 70, White Ohms
Wagon
Image: Emeralds - Smoke Signals
Relax with Nature
Image: Heatsick, "pre-cum fog ballet" & "total afternoon sundae"
Chondritic Sound
Image: Raglani - Vanity Well
Deep Fried Tapes
Image: Super Natural Hot Rug and Not Used - "self titled"
905 Tapes
Image: SOCIAL JUNK - "EIGHT YEARS AGO"
Baked Tapes
Image: Pork Lion - Contact High
Senseless Empire
Image: Trigal - 3 Cruces
Fuck It Tapes
Image: The Wooden Wand & Vanishing Voice - Michel's Portal And Crow Jane Variations
Isolated Now Waves
Image: STARVING WEIRDOS/SHEARING PINX - Split Cassette
Catholic Tapes
Image: BEE MASK/SAM GOLDBERG Split
Mistake By The Lake
Image: ROT TON BONE - WHERE DID YOU GET ALL THOSE ROTTON TONES?
Meudiademorte Records
Image: CONES - "USE YOUR ILLUSION III"
Existential Cloth Recordings
Image: derek rogers & hashem assadullahi - "tape loop sax hiss"
El Tule
Image: Dylan Ettinger - "Bread of the Dead"
Moon Glyph Tapes
Image: Soothsayer - "Neptune's Daughter"
Digitalis Ltd
Image: space dive - "twenty-first century sport"
Sonic Meditations
Image: UMBERTO - "From the Grave"
5nakefork
Image: Leavenworth / Hunting Rituals - "steel city sermon"
Buried Valley
Image: Bonecloud - "XI:XI"
Sick Head Tapes
Image: Skaters - "Dripping Avenues / Wind Drapeing Incense"
Pasalymany Tapes
Image: METIS YETI - "Dear Despair"
Jerkwave Tapes
Image: PINK NOISE - "MENAGERIE"
Bezoar Formations
Image: Sudden Oak-"Causeways of the Sun"
Caligulan Records
Image: Robedoor - Painted Seer
Plustapes
Image: Radius - Scatterbrain Tapes Vol. 1
Goaty Tapes
Image: Caethua/Ancestral Diet - split
FLA Records & Tapes
Image: A Pink Cloud - Gyogyul
Cloud Valley
Image: Unmuzzled Ox - Untitled
Shark Bite Tapes
Image: Yellow Crystal Star - Birds of Vesta
Pendu Sound Recordings
Image: Mialessot - Birds
Hospital Productions
Image: Prurient - Time Began In A Garden
Tired Trails Collective
Image: Harps of Fuchsia Kalmia w/ Delphine Dora-Pantomima Terrrestre
Heavy Tapes
Image: Failing Lights - Dismal Winds
Paradise Vendors Inc
Image: CHEATAHS 'MAGIC WEAPONS'
Suplex Cassettes
Image: An Emergency - 'Wrecked Angles'
Klorofyll Kassetter
Image: Altar of Flies - Eremiten
exbx tapes
Image: Color Dream - Darkslide on the Moon
Two Thousand Tapes
Image: Chen Santa Maria - Live KFJC cassette
hardscrabble amateurs
Image: U.S. Girls - U.S. Girls Cassingle
Rampart Tapes
Image: Walter Carson - Hilltop Reverie