Tabs Out

Shapes – s/t
10.12.15 by Mike Haley

Square, circle, triangle, hexadecagon. Those are all of the shapes known to humans. At least, that is what we thought…

If finding water on Mars has taught us anything it’s that another discovery is always around the corner. We’ll never truly know all there is to know about our complex existence, but as long as we continue to explore and scrutinize, we will mature mentally. We will learn, understand, and harness. Our mothers and fathers lived out their days comfortable in the fact that there were only four shapes. Every first kiss, broken bone, and dream postponed was done in a world with four shapes. I am here to announce a fifth. A fifth shape that is the luscious indulgence of Niklas Dommaschk’s synthesizer music.

Germany’s Meudiademorte Records packaged up this self-titled cassette slick and sexy like. The double-sided Jcard layout and black on silver cassette shell sticker are mucho posh, and give an inkling as to what world you’re about to enter. A world with a copious score of tolerant, dreamy fantasy-sounds. Shapes’ enticing synth chords ricochet off mirrored walls, finding themselves in calming cycles, relieving the listener’s shoulders of stress with each glide by. As tracks go by, in lengths of just under three minutes and just over ten, the pearly gates open a bit wider. It’s not all a back rub providing glossy elevation. The pleasure does not come without the portentous. A listen to a track like “Troubled Light” and it’s paranoid notes lurking beneath the tonal equivalent of crystallized dew is a reminder that the clouds can turn black. And while it never actually rains, the slight malaise incorporates itself nicely into the overall texture.

I can only assume there is an admiration for the obvious heroes. Niklas Dommaschk surely has a collection that doesn’t shy away from the ilk of Carpenter, Vangelis, Tomita, etc. And while he isn’t reinventing the genre, he isn’t making a replica either. There are 103 of these wonderful self-titled cassette available in all, in two different color schemes. Grab your copy here.

Years Of In-Store Kmart Cassettes Archived For Some Reason
10.10.15 by Mike Haley

In the 80’s and 90’s the in-store music and commercials pumped through the speakers at Kmart, under the name Kmart Radio (KMRT), were actually cassette tapes played on repeat. New cassettes were shipped to stores every month (eventually weekly) and, like all the other garbage at Kmart, were supposed to be tossed in the trash. For whatever reason, ex-Kmart employee Mark Davis saved 50-some of those cassettes. Mark goes into detail about them in this pretty awesome YouTube Video:

He describes it as a “strange collection”, which is pretty damn accurate. Now, 20 years later, he’s uploaded that strange collection to Archive.org. If you wanna jam some muzak, pharmacy commercials from 1989, or maybe you are simply a fucking weirdo, you can check out all the recordings here.