Why tapes?
I'd been thinking about doing a tape release for a while, spurred on most recently by the cassettes produced by Space Cassette who recently released a nice tape with Perth's own Turnstyle, for their new album Citizens Handbook. When Nick from Big Heavy Stuff suggested doing a tape for their album Size of the Ocean as part of the release, I was keen!
My love of tapes came from an early age, my first music was purchased on cassette - I recall my first tape was Diesel's "Hepfidelity", I was living in Karratha in the early 90s as a kid and access to music was limited to what we could get from the local Kmart, record from JJJ, bring back from Perth or rent from the local library. I remember borrowing INXS tapes from the library and making a copy.
Hepfidelity was a birthday gift from a friend at the time, within one year everything changed, Nirvana's Nevermind came along and I recall he apologised for buying me Diesel the next year. To this day, I reckon I'd still remember all the lyrics though. As I was learning to play guitar at the time, I standout memory was a visit to town by Tommy Emmanuel, I was able to get his albums on tape plus a signed poster. Though his playing skills remained way out of reach.
Moving back to Perth I had Silverchair's "Tomorrow" and "Frogstomp" on tape and all the Nirvana albums, I hung onto cassettes a bit longer once CDs became more common as my older cousin had told me CDs were lower quality and would wear out. It would take a while until I found out that wasn't true and I ended up with copies on CD and tape of some albums.
Moving into to the later 90s I started going out to see local Perth bands and many of them released early demos on cassette, these are some of my most treasured collectibles. I also recorded some live shows from time to time, JJJ and my own guitar/band works, mix tapes.
In a more recently Kondo-fueled downsizing phase I did sell the Nirvana and Silverchair and a few others, but more recently I've become interested again. Perhaps it's this early phase that has fueled the nostalgia, however I think there's something nice about a cassette, perhaps the size, pocketability and "low tech" feel of it - they are also destructible given the re-recordability. Also it's not easy to skip tracks, meaning you listen to an album end to end. I was a little bit too excited recently when I found You Am I's "Sound As Ever" on tape in a 2nd hand store.
Big Heavy Stuff's Size of the Ocean cassette will be released on a special blue tape with a mountain design by Matt Bayes, as a limited edition of 50. Pre-order it here!
Matt
Love As Fiction Records
16 October 2023