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 Dave Doyen, Jesse DeRosa, Mike Haley, and Scott Scholz.
Bary Center – No Stars (MJ MJ)
Art by Nico Stephou
Nico Stephou has made a super colorful image for the buoyant beats of Bary Center, and it could double as the perfect tramp stamp to celebrate gastroenterological astronomy.
Tim Gray – Sandstone (Ethernet)
Art by Marius Amarie
A dark stone statue adorns an otherwise empty white space. He’s having a nice sit on a tiny stool with his arms resting on his knees and his hands on his face cheeks. I like to sit down to relax sometimes so this is relevant to my interests. The J Card folds out and reveals another panel with another dark stone statue. They are facing each other, having a nice sit. Maybe they are talking about something nice.
Lavender – Horizons Beneath the Surface (Jacktone)
Art by Abay Zhumagulov
Remember that paper with the little dots of candy on them? Me too. Now, I’m not saying I would eat all of the dots on this tape, but I would PICK THE SHIT OUT OF EVERY LAST ONE, son. Way too tempting, way too scary. I can taste them now. I can see them glowing inside ma’ belly. Okay, maybe I will eat all of them.
Leaaves – Suite for Jaguar, Memory Man, and empty Jujyfruits box (Centipede Farm)
Art by Angel Marcloid and Charles Hoffman
One of the more delicious design spoofs in recent history, Centipede Farm parodies those old Sony Essential Classics series of bargain classical CDs/tapes that were often found in places like bookstores and red hat lady hot spots. A perfect unassuming setup for a pair of raging Noisical Works by Nate (“Little Richard”) Wagner’s solo project Leaaves.
Fad – vVv (Orange Milk)
Art by Donnie Fredericks and Keith Rankin
When Orange Milk tapes feature sculptural/modern art cover designs, you can rest assured they contain austere electronics that would make the most hardened ivory tower composers sweat a little tenure (see G.S. Sultan and Jung An Tagen from last year). Now we can add the lowercase abstractions of Aussie duo FAD to that auspicious list.
Ben Bennett – WEREN’T (1980)
Art by ?
From a far distant world, with twin burning suns, Ben Bennett set out for Earth. If 2014’s ‘Down To Earth’ hadn’t convinced you, take a look at WEREN’T, another displaced object, galaxies from home – a relic, a keepsake, a reminder – still casting two shadows.
Rawmean – Tutulemma (MJMJ)
Art by Nico Stephou
Someone said, hey I wonder what it would look like if we plopped this exploded part diagram on top of a line drawing of some vegetation and showed the Lord what they had done. The Lord was pleased. Then they stuck a nice thick cobalt blue bar down the spine and showed the Lord. The Lord was pleased. Then the Lord asked for a download code to cop it and so it was done. God bless everyone.
Apple ][プラス – Applesoft (Poor Little Music)
Art by Rob Michalchuk
I'd wager a large amount of spacebux that Data wouldn’t understand vaporwave the way he doesn’t get humor. That dolphin probably knows the deal, though. I bet it jumped out of a pink square on the floor and turned pink, and when it splashes back into one of the white squares it will turn white. My only question is, what’s below??? SET A COURSE!
Anastasia Clarke & Sandy Gordon – Total Development Cost (Generations Unlimited)
Art by Ian Bertorelli
I think this answers the question whether Androids dream of electric sheep. They dream of getting the fuck out of the office and to the beach just like us.
Bary Center – No Stars (MJ MJ)
Art by Nico Stephou
Nico Stephou has made a super colorful image for the buoyant beats of Bary Center, and it could double as the perfect tramp stamp to celebrate gastroenterological astronomy.
Tim Gray – Sandstone (Ethernet)
Art by Marius Amarie
A dark stone statue adorns an otherwise empty white space. He’s having a nice sit on a tiny stool with his arms resting on his knees and his hands on his face cheeks. I like to sit down to relax sometimes so this is relevant to my interests. The J Card folds out and reveals another panel with another dark stone statue. They are facing each other, having a nice sit. Maybe they are talking about something nice.
Lavender – Horizons Beneath the Surface (Jacktone)
Art by Abay Zhumagulov
Remember that paper with the little dots of candy on them? Me too. Now, I’m not saying I would eat all of the dots on this tape, but I would PICK THE SHIT OUT OF EVERY LAST ONE, son. Way too tempting, way too scary. I can taste them now. I can see them glowing inside ma’ belly. Okay, maybe I will eat all of them.
Leaaves – Suite for Jaguar, Memory Man, and empty Jujyfruits box (Centipede Farm)
Art by Angel Marcloid and Charles Hoffman
One of the more delicious design spoofs in recent history, Centipede Farm parodies those old Sony Essential Classics series of bargain classical CDs/tapes that were often found in places like bookstores and red hat lady hot spots. A perfect unassuming setup for a pair of raging Noisical Works by Nate (“Little Richard”) Wagner’s solo project Leaaves.
Fad – vVv (Orange Milk)
Art by Donnie Fredericks and Keith Rankin
When Orange Milk tapes feature sculptural/modern art cover designs, you can rest assured they contain austere electronics that would make the most hardened ivory tower composers sweat a little tenure (see G.S. Sultan and Jung An Tagen from last year). Now we can add the lowercase abstractions of Aussie duo FAD to that auspicious list.
Ben Bennett – WEREN’T (1980)
Art by ?
From a far distant world, with twin burning suns, Ben Bennett set out for Earth. If 2014’s ‘Down To Earth’ hadn’t convinced you, take a look at WEREN’T, another displaced object, galaxies from home – a relic, a keepsake, a reminder – still casting two shadows.
Rawmean – Tutulemma (MJMJ)
Art by Nico Stephou
Someone said, hey I wonder what it would look like if we plopped this exploded part diagram on top of a line drawing of some vegetation and showed the Lord what they had done. The Lord was pleased. Then they stuck a nice thick cobalt blue bar down the spine and showed the Lord. The Lord was pleased. Then the Lord asked for a download code to cop it and so it was done. God bless everyone.
Apple ][プラス – Applesoft (Poor Little Music)
Art by Rob Michalchuk
I'd wager a large amount of spacebux that Data wouldn’t understand vaporwave the way he doesn’t get humor. That dolphin probably knows the deal, though. I bet it jumped out of a pink square on the floor and turned pink, and when it splashes back into one of the white squares it will turn white. My only question is, what’s below??? SET A COURSE!
Anastasia Clarke & Sandy Gordon – Total Development Cost (Generations Unlimited)
Art by Ian Bertorelli
I think this answers the question whether Androids dream of electric sheep. They dream of getting the fuck out of the office and to the beach just like us.