± Cassette tapes
± Razor blades
± Musique Concrète
± Bernard Parmegiani's 'Pop e'clectic'
± Shitmat
± Now music compilations 11 onwards
Sounds Like
Everything you've ever heard recorded on magnetic tape, spliced together, processed, cut up and spliced back together again. Or if being more specific some garbled mess including samples from...
tenor saw
1940s big band records
discarded tapes
theusaisamonster
disney soundtracks
tori amos
jaws c64 cassette
fantomas
billie holiday
“Strands can be found all over the world, in gutters, snagged on trees, wherever tape players have ventured it seems they have chewed, snarled and spat too. These fragments create a shifting inaudible soundscape. Some of the strands have travelled far, they are worn and battered but can be re-spooled, and listened to.” Zoë Irvine
Taking influence from the work of Zoë Irvine’s ‘Magnetic Migration’ and Michael Oster’s ‘Tape Destruction’, I was encouraged to push this found material even further; by applying destructive techniques to the magnetic tape, I was able to seriously affect the sonic qualities of the recorded material.
My intention was to investigate the properties of cassette tape and exploit them to produce sound; the ‘warm’ warbles of wow and flutter from the tape transform into deep bass murmurs and spoken word becomes lost beneath a garbled layer of hiss. As the sub bass lines fluctuate in and out of the sonic field, the listener is challenged to search for hidden melodies that may or not be there.
I'm currently studying BA Sound Arts & Design at London College of Communication. Last year I received a Distinction for my cassette work.
I've put this page up to show off some of my work and to make contact with others working with cassette tape!
Here's a link to a recent live set recorded straight from the mixer. Excuse the realy shitty clipping, the sound guy wouldn't turn it up so the gain is maxxxxed. Sorry! Enjoy though, let me know what you think! Download it here!
Here's a video of me playing my tapes at the disco boubou warehouse party. Banger!
I am now able to sell my tapes via paypal. Each c20 cassette is a duplicate of a three month long tape splicing experiment. Either side features cut up samples of found tapes, vintage warbling, backward spoken word passages with warm bass dropouts, hiss, wow and flutter. Each cassette costs three english pounds and is available in either slime green or baby blue with record tabs out. Please specify which colour you would prefer when ordering.
i have one or two of the original ones, but they are fairly creased (those are the ones i put up in record shops etc), and i may well get some amended ones printed up to give to the bands concerned. message me your postal address and i will get a couple to you at some point!
Ta, enjoying your tape-itude too. download our album it's free and there'll be another along soon. We're interested in gigging at the moment but it's all a question of motivation and getting the new tracks sorted...
i managed to get some photos from my phone up their a bit shit but put them there anyway! i did that funny little tag thing on them so hopefully that should work! and the reading gig sounds cool! james mentioned it a while ago too!
yea was sick!!! sooo good!!! ahaha the police got totally owned at the beginning lol got meself a tshirt!! the djs were so sick too, love a bit of breakbeat! got dragged out around 1. 30ish tho, but herd somewhere tht it got shut down later on? hope not! cool set tho its so clever! have some photos on my phone too, wen i work out how to get them on the computer i shall send away lol
aha hellyea! wht manics, caught them off ur half a peigeonnnn website thing through the tome page thing! :p theres some mad stuff on there! i like the sound of that Ray Rumours , sounds a bit like Le Volume Couzbe but less sinister... so in the way that they sound foriegn too ... lol and indeed im rolling on down to that fleet warehouse thing! it sounds mental, the djset will be sick too, u'l have to find some full on rave tapes! exciting stuff!xx
I was indeed there on that awsome nite, when the race track was put to death. Outstanding set it was. It made me feel as if I was 9 again; watching and listening from the outside with life flashing before me. Sounds strange I know. That is a compliment by the way, as totally changed my way of thinking emotionally. (Not many things do that to me. Anyway I'll shut up now. Cheers for adding me. Take it easy
Hey, hey! You're right, it's never long enough. Though, if all goes to plan, I'll be in London from September. Maybe I can come over and abuse your tapes some time. Gig was a pleasure anyway. See you soon!
if your live set sounds anything like your new excerpt you'll win my heart forever, even though you won it when we first met; you'll win everybody's heart x
Dearest C(H)argill at pains me to say that I can't make this Friday as Mrs Charity Dave is taking to a beer festival so I can get drunk & start a fight with some MORRIS MEN (she has history on her side) ... Which is a shame because I would quite like to be there at S&TFD inaugural performance hurling abuse through the swathes of wow & flutter.. I also was keen to see BOTTLENOSE DOLPHINS as I have always managed to miss them previously.. Well I suppose Iconsistant then!!
I will sort out the recording from the last time you were jumping into the kick drums with such aplomb Unfortunately, it will have to be on disc, I currently don’t have (1) any cassettes (2) any way of connecting my disc to my old cassette player … I heard about your poor unfortunate communications failure.. I checked at work but we have no old L/T’s at the moment (they usually give to charity) I keep me mincers out for you … Good luck on Friday dear fellow!!
it was just lovely to see you the other night, as brief as it was, sorry about that! really really looking forward to seeing you and your gorgeous cor blimey lady at the westy.xxxx
In the wardrobe of resonance there are many unused sounds, too vulgar, offensive, oblique, yet too beautiful to throw away….. Yet in that wardrobe we hang our likenesses, echoes of sounds already in the twilight of their Autumn, like old pocket books yellow thumb-smeared with yesterday, waiting… Waiting for someone to rediscover them, reconstruct them to the NOW… It could be you.. But I don’t think it concrete…
