Greetings all... My book - "Cassette Culture: Homemade Music and the Creative Spirit in the Pre-Internet Age" - is in the formatting stage and targeted for publication by Vinyl-on-Demand late first quarter 2019. I'm working on selecting photos and need assistance with my chapter on Creative Packaging... Do any of you 1980s artists/networkers have any tapes from the 80s that were packaged in artistic/creative ways? The crazier the better. These must be PRE-1992. If anyone is willing/able to send me high quality jpg images of such cassette albums I would be eternally grateful. I need these fairly quickly. Please email me if you can help. Here are a few examples of some of the more 'out there' imaginative cassettes from 1980s Op magazine reviews...
Robin Rose (ex synth player for Urban Verbs) sent in a piece called Reliquary that was inspired by the catastrophic Air Florida plane crash into the Potomac River in January 1982. The ‘fossilized’ cassette came mounted on a silk-screened board and the tape contains some quietly spooky sounds (a reliquary is a compartment for keeping religious or sacred objects). Packaging of the Issue Award will have to be divided among the following two (group) entries. (First): Trance Port Tapes’ latest 2 releases both come wrapped in folded cardboard sleeves beautifully silkscreened in silver. The other half of the Outstanding Packaging trophy goes to PPP in France for the white polystyrene medical specimen beaker (? – my best guess) that cylindrically encased their Assemble Generale #4 international compilation. Mark Murrell easily walks off with the Best Packaging honors this issue for sending in his letter on a 7-foot-long, 1/2 inch wide strip of paper wound into a scotch tape dispenser. The cassette, letter, poster, envelope, and everything were painted with beautiful airbrushed textures, a real impressive piece – shame I couldn’t frame and hang it. Dangling Ganglion it’s called and contains some very rich audio collage work with clever musical ideas added. Altogether a heady experience. Peter Cathum, Gum (cassette): “Peter’s second cassette release, packaging by Christopher Grace. The cassette comes in a box with various titled photos relating to the pieces and a special listening device (assembly required). This tape is more complex both in composition and packaging than Cathum’s first release. The amazing use of sounds and instruments creates a very atmospherically conceptual piece. One gets the feeling that they have lived for one day as Peter Cathum. The Young Schitzophrenics, AMOL OBOL 1#: “An interesting packaging job on this one. The cassette was totally wrapped in electrical tape, making it a very dicey job getting the tape off without cutting it in half. As for the tape itself – The first fifteen minutes sound like a metal foundry running at full tilt, complete with foghorns. This crashes well into clichéd shortwave radio static and then back to the foundry this time running at a much lower speed. A great tape to watch T.V. with.”
16 Comments
C. Goff III
8/5/2018 23:38:31
I got a lot of packages with posters, photocopy art, or booklets in them; some came with little toys, trading cards, post cards, etc. ... but nothing super extreme like the things you are describing above ended up in my mail box back in those days.
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Jerry Kranitz
8/6/2018 03:51:01
THANKS Charles. I've had a few hugely helpful responses already. And yesterday Jeff Chenault kindly invited me to his home (his AMAZING collection!!) to photograph some creatively packaged tapes he has.
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Goff III
8/6/2018 10:56:28
Glad you are getting a proper response to your request. I'm sure to enjoy viewing whatever photos you unearth.
Rafael González
8/6/2018 08:23:50
A wonderful project! You are going to do a magnificent work!
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8/6/2018 12:47:33
I have “Watching Satan : the legacy of Charles Manson from Jan Bruun’s Hypertonia label. A tape with a 7” Vinyl single cover! Sending a picture of it to you in a minute
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C. Goff III
8/6/2018 12:52:21
I don't wanna cause any trouble here, but this one was released in 1992, if that matters...
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8/6/2018 12:56:27
I know, but it was compiled during 1991. Sent it anyway if he needs it
Jerry Kranitz
8/6/2018 17:47:00
I said pre-1992 but when you read the book you'll all see that 1992 was technically my cut off date.\
Jerry Kranitz
8/9/2018 03:21:20
BIG thanks Ditlev Buster! FYI that I replied to your email but got a bounce back with an error saying your account is over quota. Just wanted to acknowledge receipt and THANKS!
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8/9/2018 17:12:13
No problemo! I just realized that and deleted a bunch of files on my google drive! Got your re email now!
Jerry Kranitz
8/6/2018 17:48:03
Hi Ken... if you could email me some high res shots of a handful of those I would GREATLY appreciate it!!
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Evan Cantor
8/14/2018 20:20:30
hi Jerry--we (WoG) never went "too far" in our packaging--part of the idea was that we wanted to disseminate as many titles as possible and going the extreme art route would have made that difficult. That said, we did make little booklets and used spray paint on the labels and sometimes the cases. But nothing quite like what you appear to be soliciting. You can see all those cassette images at the Walls Of Genius archive on haltapes.com if you're interested and I'm happy to send jpgs of any of them.
Jerry Kranitz
8/15/2018 03:13:28
THANKS Evan! I've had a tremendous response and think I'm pretty well covered now.
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Penga
5/13/2019 14:05:05
A lot of the Alternate Media tapes images are on Discogs and we used the humorous anti copying messages from Harsh Reality tape label but my favorite tape inserts are the one's are Ozric Tentacles first six self released cassettes
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Chris Phinney
5/13/2019 21:23:02
Hello there Mark, how is all in dear old brummie land? I assume Mitch still missing? Good to see you here been a while!
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Jerry KranitzJerry Kranitz published Aural Innovations: The Global Source For Space Rock Exploration from 1998-2016. AI started as a printed zine (nine issues from 1998-2000) and then went online for the duration. The web site also included regularly broadcast editions of Aural Innovations Space Rock Radio. Archives
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