Advertisement

Features Music

Cassette Comeback: tapes and weirdo music go hand in hand

MUSICWORKS: THE CASSETTE YEARS reception at the Music Gallery (197 John), Friday (March 11), 6 pm. Free. Exhibition at Open Gallery (49 McCaul), Monday to Friday (March 14-18). See listing. musicgallery.org.


As part of the Music Gallery‘s ongoing 40th anniversary celebrations, the Toronto experimental music institution teamed up with OCAD U’s Open Gallery for an exhibition of cassettes originally distributed with issues of Musicworks Magazine in the 80s and 90s. The Music Gallery founded the magazine, and both entities played a large role in shaping experimental and electronic music in Canada. 

“The Music Gallery identified that tapes are experiencing a resurgence in popularity in certain communities, so they thought it would be kind of fun for people to get back into [these],” explains Emily Cluett, who helped curate the show with Ariel Sharratt as part of their curatorial practices studies at OCAD U.

The comeback of cassette tapes isn’t a mirage. Online music database and marketplace Discogs recently released data that showed a 38.62 per cent jump in the number of cassettes added to their database in 2015, far higher than any other format. Discogs also saw a 37.14 per cent rise in tape sales in 2015.

Collectors are helping fuel interest in the obsolete medium, both on the vintage market and when it comes to newer boutique labels embracing the format. While most people prefer the convenience of digital files, a tangible art object still appeals to many. 

Most of the music in the exhibition – like Times & Tides, a 1985 release that includes recordings of roosters and clocks – was never available commercially, and there are no plans to put the archive online. But if you don’t have hours to spend at the exhibit’s listening stations (the archive includes about 48 hours of music), small numbers of cassette copies will be available.

“It is a listening salon, but Musicworks had a lot of duplicates, so we told the editor that if they wanted to get rid of some of the old tapes, this would be a great opportunity,” says Cluett. 

She and Sharratt also selected highlights to make the experience less daunting. “It’s actually really hard to find tape decks these days, so we only chose [to present] eight tapes – about 16 hours of music.”

That difficulty in finding functioning tape players is one reason why it’s easy to see the tape revival as a gimmick. But it’s vital for musicians to have something to sell at the merch table, and pressing vinyl is less feasible for independent artists now that the few remaining plants are swamped with business from major labels making deluxe reissues of albums you can still find original copies of in discount bins. 

CDs, meanwhile, don’t have much nostalgic or collectible appeal, and boutique labels are reporting that CD-R quality is becoming too inconsistent to depend on for small runs. 

Cassettes, on the other hand, are accessible and affordable to produce, which is why so much weirdo contemporary music is being released on them. That may be the thread tying these vintage Musicworks tapes to the current experimental music scene, and the reason why the medium refuses to die.

benjaminb@nowtoronto.com | @benjaminboles

Advertisement

Exclusive content and events straight to your inbox

Subscribe to our Newsletter

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

By signing up, I agree to receive emails from Now Toronto and to the Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.

Recently Posted