Status Updates From High Bias: The Distorted Hi...

Metallica approached Dead for advice on taper area, copied standard documents

Mark Neumann & Timothy Simpson's 2011 survey of tapers relates stealth stories: various smuggling techniques

Lee Ranaldo -live tape collector in the 70s, created a spreadsheet
Early 80s - forms Sonic Youth
They tapes everything they did from day 1
Fans began taping them, full circle

Robert O'Haire - final performance of Heartbreakers

Dick Latvala - official Dead archivist, launched Dick's Picks
David Lemieux took over after Latvala's death in 1999, until 2005, Dave's Picks launch in 2012

Dead trading community remained strong after cassettes faded

Bob Dylan completists

Brigid Berlin - part of Warhol's Factory scene
August '70 - recorded Velvet Underground Lou Reed's last show, first official bootleg released in 72 as Live at Max's Kansas city

Nest of microphones issue, sound engineer Dan Healy couldn't see the stage as he worked
1984 - Berkeley show, Healy unveiled a dedicated taper section with separate tickers
Pros: more convenient, could share audio signal
Cons: experience less fun, equipment blocking movement, tapers policing to stay quiet, worse sound quality
Many tapers ventured back to audience

Dead's popularity grew in 80s
Soundboard mixes

1974 - Kippel starts Dead relix, helping start the 70s Grateful Dead taping boom

Dead taping ubiquitous by 80s
veterans vs. newbs

The band initially resisted taping, stealth methods were devised, Dead warmed up to taping ~77
80s: tapers could set up in the open
Security still stopped tapers against sound engineer's instructions
Robert Wagner - taping was an art form, craft skills, archiving & unique documentation

THE TAPE TRADERS

BPI Vs. Neil Corkindale 1978

Story of Lionel Mapelson's Bettini phonograph recordings in 1900s New York Metropolitan Opera House

"Tape trader" subcultures in 70s eschewed the idea of commerce

Grateful Dead taping subculture
Michael Getz & John Dwork's Deadhead's Taping Compendium
Taping began to gain steam in the 70s
Les Kippel starts First Free Underground Grateful Dead Tape Exchange in 1972

Aaron Dilloway, inspired by Throbbing Gristle, Mick Jagger.
Used a C1 tape deck, insisted on cassettes later

Howard Stelzer

Michael Anderson - "Drekka" 90s
Sindre Bjerga
Jason Zeh

Aki Onda - 2000s Cassette Memories
Joe Murray - microcassettes
Randall Taylor - self taught in the 90s, posts tutorials on YouTube

Decline of cassette scene, but new scenes emerged
G.R.O.S.S. label in Japan

Baroin's TRAX releases, modular system, "Central/Peripheral Units"

Graf Haufen - Graf Haufen Tapes, Die Katastrophe cassette magazine (!)

Alain Neffe - Insane Music
1980 - Mick Sinclair starts "Cassette Pets" in Sounds

Archie Patterson - 70s show Eurock

Some tapers transformed the cassette into an instrument in its own right
Robin James, José Maceda, Conrad Schnitzler - cassette orchestras, conductors
Wayne Coyne

Chris Phinney - Harsh Reality
Ron Lessard - RRRecords, RRRadio

William Furlong - Audio Arts 1973
Joel Haertling - Zamizdat Trade Journal
Robnin James - Audio Archive

Solmania, Masonna, MSBR
83 - Gokuaku No Kyoten - Hijokaidan
Masami Akita - Merzbow - 80s
Gerogerigegege - Shaking Box
NE Frans de Waard - Nederlandse cassette catalogus -83, Kapotte Muziek, Korm Plastics
Rod Summers - 60s
Vittore Baroni - Arte Postale!

Stanley Keith Bowsza (Minóy) - tapes bequeathed to Philip Klingler

Don Campai - Lonely Whistle, "Mr. Full Time Vegetable"
Dino DiMuro
Heather Perkins
Walls of Genius
Sue Ann Harkey - Cityzens for Non-Linear Futures, Audio Letter
Zan Hoffman
Gen Ken Montgomery - starts Generator in 1989 for "worldwide cassette underground", lasted a year
Leslie Singer - Diary of a Shit Eater
Amy Denio - No Bones 1986, hospital photo

John Foster at KAOS - 80% of DJs had to be on independent labels
Started Lost Music Network
1979 - OP magazine starts as an insert in KAOS' program guide
David Rauh - advertising salesman for OP
Tapes only section called Castanets launched in 1981

Throbbing Gristle, COUM Transmissions in the 70s

Postal system crucial to OP scene
Presentation of cassettes

Jeff Tartakov, friend of Johnston

Started Stress Records in Austin, wanted to help Johnston spread his songs, kept his collection alive during personal and professional turmoil during Johnston's years of renown

New York 1990: Johnston records his first studio record
Dropped by Atlantic in the late 1990s
Died in 2019

Lou Barlow: 1980s, discovered Johnston, inspired to put his own stuff on tape
Bought a 4-track

Lo-fi subgenre
R. Stevie Moore - prolific recorder on reel-to-reel "Godfather of lo-fi"
Taught self to record with decent quality on home equipment

1982 : R. Stevie Moore Cassette Club
Members received list of titles, "listenability quotient"
Mistakes, fragments of convos left in
"Diary of sound"

Daniel Johnston, recorded piano on a Sanyo recorder, pretending to make soundtracks
Released tapes throughout the 80s

70s Punk Rock

Late 70s: Neil Cooper dubbed "works in progress"
81: Cooper launches cassette-only label ROIR

Bruce Pavitt
1979 - Radio show "Subterranean Pop", next year magazine of the same name ("Sub Pop")
Cassette editions of "Sub Pop"
Calvin Johnson's label K Records, he carted tapes around from store to store himself

Metal fanzines - Metal Fury, Metal Mania, Metal Rendezvous, New Heavy Metal Revue

Helped people find each other and trade tapes
Tapes had pers., extensions

Story of Metallica, dubbed songs to cassette, sent to fanzines and traders, popular thanks to tape trading

Stealth nature of tape trading -> music felt unfiltered, unsanctioned, "secret club"
CDs in the 90s -> collectors focused on rarities by established bands

DJ Clue and "exclusives"

Washington, DC: go-go music, extended jams. band, lead talker, the crowd
Popular in 80s
PA tapes, Nico Hobson's tape shop in 90s

PA Palace, shoutouts

70s Chicago: house music, DJ Frankie Knuckles, Warehouse club

1978: Iron Maiden tape, recorded directly to cassette. People surprised they weren't signed yet. Pressed on vinyl in 79

CREATING MUSIC

New York 1970s: The DJ

Kool Herc's breakbeat

NY mixtape helped keep up with rapid changes in NY, introduced by accident by DJ Hollywood
Tapes got more popular when he started rapping over the tapes
"Mixtapes were the calling card for hip-hop"

Drug dealers, hustlers paying for shoutouts

Robert Earl Davis Jr. - DJ Screw, Chopped & Screwed music, popular in early 90s, kept his faith in cassettes

1979 - TEAC Tascam M-144 Portastudio 4-Track
Adopters used the device in all sorts of ways
"Inferior" quality of tape became badge of honor

Late 1980s - James McNew
1982 - Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska recorded entirely on a 4-Track
"The better it sounded, the worse it sounded"

Improvements in tape hiss, Dolby encoding

What made cassettes popular was its convenience features: tabs, dual-cassette decks for copying, auto-reverse, programmable cassettes

1966: Philips 22RL962: Combo deck + radio + speaker
Japanese people moving to cities with small living spaces, JP companies expand on Philips model
1970s: JVC RC-550 "El Diablo"
RC-M70 "Boom Box"

Flangeless hubs
RCA cassette still too large and power hungry

1963: Philips introduces Lou Ottens' "compact cassette" and "pocket recorder", envisioned for voice recording, at the Berlin Radio Exhibition.
One prototype went missing, a Japanese version appeared using its designs.

Philips waived royalties to Sony and to all others, resulting in an explosion of tape devices

193-s: Metal shell for recording wire known as cassettes.
40s, 50s: cassette systems emerged
Problem: Quality audio required high speed -> more tape -> cassettes bulky
1952 - Cousino's cartridges
1954 - Fidelipak, primarily used by radio stations
60s: Earl Muntz's Stereo-Pak, 4 tracks
Learjet began using it, 8 track tape
Ford used Lear's player in its cars, RCA Victor released albums for it

Invention of the tape

1878 - Oberlin Smith's idea of magnetic encoding
1898 - Valdemar Poulsen's wire recording, for answering machines - Recordograph. Wires would twist & snag.
1928 - Fritz Pfleumer: coating paper with magnetic material -> later on plastic tape -> less noise
AEG's Magnetophone: "reel-to-reel". Blattnerphone, Soundmirror.

Magnetophone became synonymous with "tape recorder", remained audiphoile tier

KILLING MUSIC
British Phonographic Industry - 80s campaign

Home-taping panic: 60s
Amstrad touted decks' dubbing capabilities
BPI complained, took Amstrad to court

Legal action attempts since 1974: "amateur recording license", proposed proto-DRM on tapes
Cassette taxes - ruled unconstitutional in UK and Australia
1985 US home-taping bill died

Reaction: Dead Kennedys, Bow Wow Wow