Old Tech - Cassettes

I used to have a 'separates' hifi but sold it over 10 years ago and honestly thought that though I would have other 'hifi' equpiment I would never play a cassette again.

How wrong I was! When the label Oakhi Records asked me to submit a track for their Escapism Mixtape I was amazed to find out they planned to release it on physical cassette as well as digital download.

So - faced with the prospect of finding something to play it on I asked around and a couple of people found old walkmans in the attic - but none were working (or working well enough). I think cassette players age pretty badly due to the moving parts and in particular the rubber belts used in the mechanism's perish.

So I bought this refurbished Technics M14 on ebay so that I could at least play the tape! It's not bad sounding - obviously what we consider lofi these days, but I guess that is fitting for this style of music. Ironically a lot of the tracks (including mine) have samples of vinyl scratching intentionally mixed into them to give them a lofi sound.

So we end up with a track produced digitally on a computer, with vinyl noise added to it and then put onto an analogue cassette tape and played back on an old cassette player! If you think this is a bid mad - I hear you!

That being said I did enjoy the nostalgia of putting the tape in, winding it and watching the spindles rotate and my 3 year old son got the hang of using it really quick and took one of the old not good sounding walkmans and sometimes walks around listening to it!

Wondering if anyone reading likes old technolody or if you just thing this is barmy?!

I know Vinyl has had a big resurgence, but does anyone else still have a cassette player that works?

The video is my track Impression from Escapism Vol 1. which came out last year.

Next week Vol 2. comes out and I'm doing some giveaways in relation to it - Check out my Hive Basic Income Giveaways for pre-saves and pre-orders.

I don't have a copy of the new tape yet but I'll be giving it a spin on my Technics deck when I do!

Have a great day Hive!