Look At These Tapes is a monthly roundup of our favorites in recent cassette artwork and packaging, along with short, stream-of-thought blurbs. Whatever pops into our heads when we look at/hold them. Selections by Jesse DeRosa, Mike Haley, and Scott Scholz.
V/A - Lives Through Magic (Lives Through Magic)
Art by Keith Rankin & Juli Odomo
The packaging for this double cassette comp could easily be confused for the How To Be The Perfect Psychic kit that you ordered. "Lives Through Magic" does not come with the brushed nickel ball and curious cards pictured on the cover, you'll have to supply those yourself, but with proper concentration and dedication you'll have that marble floating in no time.
Yves Malone - Moonday Tides (Data Airlines)
Art by Tiny Little Hammers
The most famous screensaver from the 1989 After Dark software series was, without a doubt, the iconic Flying Toasters module, which showcased a collection of top-of-the-line 1940's-style chrome bread-warmers cascading your screen with bird-like wings and colliding with pieces of projectile toast. A slider in the Flying Toasters peripherals enabled users to adjust the bread's darkness and an updated Flying Toasters Pro module added a choice of music - either Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries or a Flying Toaster Anthem with optional karaoke lyrics. Seems like someone spiked the kool-aid here and cranked the slider wayyyyy up, burning the toast, and setting the vintage hardware ablaze in the process. Too scary.
Cabo Boing - Blob On A Grid (Haord)
Art by ?
I assume Blob On A Grid was a public access children's show from the 80's that was FAR too damaged to be a show for children (or anyone for that matter) that lasted nearly one full episode. The main character, Cobo Boing, was an alien made out of pool noodles and olives who encouraged children through song to ♫ Explore! Your parent's medicine! Explore! The sewers with homeless men! ♫. Thankfully copies of cassettes featuring the show's best music survived.
Mr. & Mrs. Chip Perkins - Very Warm Regards (Strategic Tape Reserve)
Art by ?
In the perfect visual tribute to music tracked in the home studio of an old Victorian the ever-industrious Perkins couple have created a design that recalls the very early beginnings of cassette culture. While rarely discussed today, in the 1800s, j-cards were made of light fabric remnants and executed by hand in needlepoint.
Art by Rez & ArtFluids
Brøderbund is a company from Oregon responsible for educational software and 8-bit games for the Apple II computer. Spoofin' that classic 80's and 90's computer software artwork is cheap way to tickle me from shoulder pads to toe nails, I'm a fucking sucker for it, so you got me here. Actually, I don't even know if this is a spoof. This could be the original artwork for some reading, thinking, math, and science skills improvement shit. Either way, bravo.
Dennis Young - 12/31/1982 (Stimulus Progression)
Art by Dennis Young
Dennis Young, or Dennis Andrews if you nasty, was a founding member of Liquid Liquid and dropped a serious run of private-press solo synthesizer tapes in the 80's under the latter pseudonym. '12/31/1982' offers a peak into a late night session tape of free improv in Edison, NJ as Young jammed solo in his home studio through the New Year. Little known fact, but January 1st, 1983 saw the final migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP officially completed, and is considered to be the actual beginning of the true Internet as we know it today. This, as a result, may be the last vestige of pre-internet synth-melters. 9 days later Fraggle Rock was also aired for the first time. I was conceived somewhere between these two events.
Alain Lefebvre - We Are the Way We Are Because Nature Will Allow It (Jeunesse Cosmique)
Art by Gabrielle
You might have read the clickbait-ish article about Brazilian college student Bruno Borges who recently disappeared, leaving behind a room whose walls are covered with strange ciphers and symbols. Here we find what appear to be some related mysterious symbols, resting nervously atop what appears to be a closeup of of one mystic/shredder/friend-of-aliens Steve Vai's extra-string-enhanced guitars. Obviously this brings the whole mystery to light, and the secret of the universe is
Astral Spirits - batch 12
Art by Mase Man
Sometimes it's the little things that grab your attention. If you recall back to the third edition of Look At These Tapes, Astral Spirits had made a subtle-but powerful shift in their j-card designs, featuring the familiar series of evolving shapes on textured backgrounds by Mase Man instead of the starker flat backgrounds their first 10 batches employed. Batch 12 mostly continues along this textured path for art and design, but incrementally shifts the overall conception slightly again with cassette shells in a variety of colorways instead of the all-black tapes of previous batches. Same great sounds and even more color!
Stratocastors - Autre Regard (OJC Recordings)
Art by Stratocastors
This is one of those album cover photo sessions that just came together perfectly: Intense paisley backdrop? Check. Interesting chair with the perfect amount of damaged veneer to show the passage of time? Right this way. Make Me Pretty Talking Barbie styled to the peak of New/No-Wave? Check. Color fade Slinky as hair accessory? Damn straight. Copy of "Sonic Seasonings" by Wendy Carlos to tie everything together? On it. Lights, camera, action!
Paco Sala - The Silent Season (Field Hymns)
Art by Tiny Little Hammers
The trippy, tense moments that make up "The Silent Season" are perfectly captured visually in this killer j-card by Tiny Little Hammers. Looking positively 3-dimensional in person, one can only wonder what bizarre situation is playing out in this red-lit room. It all feels a little like an outtake from that creepy underground "Sad Satan" video game, with electric pulses tracking along the walls and doors mysteriously materializing. With music featuring low-fi loops of someone saying phrases like "are you my angel" over and over, strap in and hang on.
V/A - Lives Through Magic (Lives Through Magic)
Art by Keith Rankin & Juli Odomo
The packaging for this double cassette comp could easily be confused for the How To Be The Perfect Psychic kit that you ordered. "Lives Through Magic" does not come with the brushed nickel ball and curious cards pictured on the cover, you'll have to supply those yourself, but with proper concentration and dedication you'll have that marble floating in no time.
Yves Malone - Moonday Tides (Data Airlines)
Art by Tiny Little Hammers
The most famous screensaver from the 1989 After Dark software series was, without a doubt, the iconic Flying Toasters module, which showcased a collection of top-of-the-line 1940's-style chrome bread-warmers cascading your screen with bird-like wings and colliding with pieces of projectile toast. A slider in the Flying Toasters peripherals enabled users to adjust the bread's darkness and an updated Flying Toasters Pro module added a choice of music - either Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries or a Flying Toaster Anthem with optional karaoke lyrics. Seems like someone spiked the kool-aid here and cranked the slider wayyyyy up, burning the toast, and setting the vintage hardware ablaze in the process. Too scary.
Cabo Boing - Blob On A Grid (Haord)
Art by ?
I assume Blob On A Grid was a public access children's show from the 80's that was FAR too damaged to be a show for children (or anyone for that matter) that lasted nearly one full episode. The main character, Cobo Boing, was an alien made out of pool noodles and olives who encouraged children through song to ♫ Explore! Your parent's medicine! Explore! The sewers with homeless men! ♫. Thankfully copies of cassettes featuring the show's best music survived.
Mr. & Mrs. Chip Perkins - Very Warm Regards (Strategic Tape Reserve)
Art by ?
In the perfect visual tribute to music tracked in the home studio of an old Victorian the ever-industrious Perkins couple have created a design that recalls the very early beginnings of cassette culture. While rarely discussed today, in the 1800s, j-cards were made of light fabric remnants and executed by hand in needlepoint.
Art by Rez & ArtFluids
Brøderbund is a company from Oregon responsible for educational software and 8-bit games for the Apple II computer. Spoofin' that classic 80's and 90's computer software artwork is cheap way to tickle me from shoulder pads to toe nails, I'm a fucking sucker for it, so you got me here. Actually, I don't even know if this is a spoof. This could be the original artwork for some reading, thinking, math, and science skills improvement shit. Either way, bravo.
Dennis Young - 12/31/1982 (Stimulus Progression)
Art by Dennis Young
Dennis Young, or Dennis Andrews if you nasty, was a founding member of Liquid Liquid and dropped a serious run of private-press solo synthesizer tapes in the 80's under the latter pseudonym. '12/31/1982' offers a peak into a late night session tape of free improv in Edison, NJ as Young jammed solo in his home studio through the New Year. Little known fact, but January 1st, 1983 saw the final migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP officially completed, and is considered to be the actual beginning of the true Internet as we know it today. This, as a result, may be the last vestige of pre-internet synth-melters. 9 days later Fraggle Rock was also aired for the first time. I was conceived somewhere between these two events.
Alain Lefebvre - We Are the Way We Are Because Nature Will Allow It (Jeunesse Cosmique)
Art by Gabrielle
You might have read the clickbait-ish article about Brazilian college student Bruno Borges who recently disappeared, leaving behind a room whose walls are covered with strange ciphers and symbols. Here we find what appear to be some related mysterious symbols, resting nervously atop what appears to be a closeup of of one mystic/shredder/friend-of-aliens Steve Vai's extra-string-enhanced guitars. Obviously this brings the whole mystery to light, and the secret of the universe is
Astral Spirits - batch 12
Art by Mase Man
Sometimes it's the little things that grab your attention. If you recall back to the third edition of Look At These Tapes, Astral Spirits had made a subtle-but powerful shift in their j-card designs, featuring the familiar series of evolving shapes on textured backgrounds by Mase Man instead of the starker flat backgrounds their first 10 batches employed. Batch 12 mostly continues along this textured path for art and design, but incrementally shifts the overall conception slightly again with cassette shells in a variety of colorways instead of the all-black tapes of previous batches. Same great sounds and even more color!
Stratocastors - Autre Regard (OJC Recordings)
Art by Stratocastors
This is one of those album cover photo sessions that just came together perfectly: Intense paisley backdrop? Check. Interesting chair with the perfect amount of damaged veneer to show the passage of time? Right this way. Make Me Pretty Talking Barbie styled to the peak of New/No-Wave? Check. Color fade Slinky as hair accessory? Damn straight. Copy of "Sonic Seasonings" by Wendy Carlos to tie everything together? On it. Lights, camera, action!
Paco Sala - The Silent Season (Field Hymns)
Art by Tiny Little Hammers
The trippy, tense moments that make up "The Silent Season" are perfectly captured visually in this killer j-card by Tiny Little Hammers. Looking positively 3-dimensional in person, one can only wonder what bizarre situation is playing out in this red-lit room. It all feels a little like an outtake from that creepy underground "Sad Satan" video game, with electric pulses tracking along the walls and doors mysteriously materializing. With music featuring low-fi loops of someone saying phrases like "are you my angel" over and over, strap in and hang on.