Making mixtapes

Musical adventures in taping over pre-recorded cassettes

Hey y’all,

To steal a line from the comedian Nate Bargatze, “I’m from the 1900s.” It’s a fact. A fact my children enjoy pointing out to me.

I was born in another century and I’ve been leaning into it lately: Writing in my paper notebook with a fountain pen, sending letters, making stamps, watching birds, riding bicycles, and now, making actual cassette mixtapes.

My new mixtape habit started when I was reading Marc Masters’ High Bias: The Distorted History of the Cassette Tape. I forgot that you could cover the missing record protection tabs on any cassette and record over it. A few weeks later, I was shopping at End of an Ear and came across a bunch of brand new, sealed, pre-recorded cassettes for 99 cents. I bought them out and brought the tapes home for a new project.

Each month, I unwrap one of the sealed cassettes and tape over it in 3 ways:

1. I tape over the missing recording tabs.

2. I tape over the pre-recorded music with songs I’ve been listening to.

3. I tape over the artwork with my tape and magazines collage technique and type up the tracklist on my typewriter and glue it on the back of the cover.

It’s an exercise in constraint. How long the mix is depends on how long the original tape is, and the artwork depends on what was already on the cover.

The latest tape is called D E S E R T, and it was inspired by our recent trip to Joshua Tree National Park. It’s a short one because the original tape was short:

SIDE A
– Can, “Shikako Maru Ten”
– Amanaz, “Khala My Friend”
– Cocteau Twins, “Watchlar”
– Molly Lewis, “On The Lips” (tape version is chopped and shortened so she just says, ‘thank you for listening’)

SIDE B
– Sparks, “Sherlock Holmes”
– The Isley Brothers, “Work To Do”
– The Smile, “Teleharmonic” (had to fade this out because the tape was too short)

All these tracks are streaming, so you can listen to the mix on Spotify.

February’s tape was called Music in The Key of Love — it was taped over John Tesh’s album of the same name. (A long-playing, high-quality tape!)

SIDE A
– Four Tet, “Loved”
– Geese, “3D Country”
– The Frightnrs, “I’d Rather Go Blind”
– Cass McCombs, “Don’t Vote”
– The Sonics, “He’s Waitin’”
– Little Dragon, “Slugs of Love”

SIDE B
– The Donays, “Devil in his Heart”
– ZZ Top, “I Thank You”
– Can, “Moonshake”
– Curtis Mayfield, “We’ve Only Just Begun”
– Al Green, “Take Me To The River”
– Depeche Mode, “Master and Servant” (live)
– James & Bobby Purify, “I’m Your Puppet”
– Alton Ellis & Phyllis Dillon, “Why Did you Leave Me”
– The Beatles, “Blue Moon”

All of these tracks are also streaming, so you can listen to the mix on Spotify.

January’s tape was called Wellness. It started just because I wanted the 1969 re-recorded version of Donovan’s “Colours” and Steve Bent’s “I’m Going To Spain” on a tape because neither are streaming. I found the Donovan track on a burned CD that also had The Frogs song on it. Then things kind of spiraled out from there…

SIDE ONE
– Donovan, “Colours” (1968 re-recorded version w/ band)
– Steve Bent, “I’m Going to Spain”
– The Frogs, “I’ve Got Drugs”
– Elvis, “Don’t Be Cruel”
– Pete Drake, “Forever”
– Brian Eno, “Deep Blue Day”

SIDE TWO
– R.E.M., “Tongue”
– The Breeders, “No Aloha” (just the first part before the whole band comes in)
– Roy Orbison, “Blue Bayou”
– Emahoy Tsegue-Maryam Guebrou, “Mother’s Love”
– Heart, “Dreamboat Annie”
– Clinic, “Voodoo Wop”
– Alton Ellis, “Rock Steady”

Since three of these tracks aren’t streaming, I made a YouTube playlist.

Why am I doing this? I don’t know! It’s fun and I like it. I plan on making a mix every month for the rest of the year or until I get bored. Who knows where it will lead?

An exercise from The Steal Like an Artist Journal

Now it’s your turn! Make us a mixtape of music you love. You can post a text list in the comments or link to a YouTube playlist or a playlist on a streaming service. (If that’s too much, just tell us a favorite song or an album you can’t stop listening to.)

Can’t wait to hear some new tunes. Hope y’all have a wonderful week.

xoxo,

Austin