Various Artists - High Bias: Music from the Book
Thinking about how to step into the fantastic world of modern cassettes or want to get back to uprooted staples of how music was easily physically shared? Hollywood has mix-tapes glamorized for romantic comedies and the record store elitist. This is so not true. In my life, a friend handing me a cassette was a powerful instrument in my personal music listening journey. I remember so many cassettes that changed sound paths... Pressing play said "no, you can not listen there anymore, you are going in this direction now". And since i am writing this, here are a handful of cassettes given to me that sent exploration in totally different realms. The farthest back was a tape with one side Toots and the Maytals and the other side James White and the Blacks. This was followed by a friend visiting form Michigan and handing over a live Almighty Lumberjacks of Death cassette. Sometime later a friend form Gainesville made me a Swans and Sonic Youth Tape. And then there was the pivotal Lead Belly / Woody Guthrie tape. Each of these cassettes made a substantial impact on me and is easily remembered with great appreciation.
With the resurgence of cassettes as a for real medium for physical releases, the knowledge of this revitalization does not seem to have traveled very far. Most people have difficulty in comprehending tapes are still being listened to. Marc Masters, a current day music journalist has taken time to make sense of this. Connecting the history of cassettes with the present day much loved use of this medium. His new book titled High Bias: The Distorted History of the Cassette Tape, starts from the beginning as brings readers to where we are at now. Accompanying the book is a mix tape of course, titled High Bias: Music from the Book. The tape collects twelve artists from twelve current tape labels and gives sonic resonance to the final chapter in the book. Some of the labels have shared releases from their past catalog and other labels of provided newer material. The most congruent aspect of every selection is this being an instrumental body of work. And in this feature, a high percentage of these tracks are on the threshold of where music is today. This is as it should be, an avant garde body of work propelling listeners to enigmatic aural dimensions where melodies sink deep into the spirit and simultaneously cause the conscious to sit up from the comfy chair.
Over the history of listening and attempting to describe sounds on this site, almost all of the labels included on High Bias: Music from the Book have had releases explored on Lost in a Sea of Sound.
These include:
This list of labels is only a fraction of how many cassette labels are currently running and then only a tiny particle to how many artists have releases on cassette. I think Tabs Out has a similar statement on their top two hundred list each year. If you are interested in history and/or want to start exploring cassettes releases, both Marc Masters' book and various artist accompanying tape should be on your list. Marc is currently on a book tour with his second tour date today (10/22) in Atlanta.
Copies of the book and cassette are currently available from Marc Masters' bandcamp page. This is available signed by Marc Masters. The proceeds of this project will go to Philip Klinger. He has a project to restore and release the music from the sound artist Stanley Keith Bowsza and his work under Minóy.
Links
Marc Masters - bandcamp
Comments