Four Track

A while ago I wrote about an interesting tape release in vital weekly:

ENANTIOBIOSIS 1 (cassette by Bob Heaven’s Tapes)
And then finally a cassette that idea-wise is right up my alley: four bands have provided a piece of music that is copied to this tape so that the adventurous musician can stick it into his four track machine and do his own mix. So we have one channel on side A for Drekka, the other channel for Lather, and we reverse the tape and have Charnel House on the left channel and Kyle Willey on the right channel (estimated. I couldn’t decipher the cover properly). Not exactly something you stick on and listen, but rather something you can freely play around with. Long form drone like sounds with crude lo-fi sampling. Maybe a bit rough? Who cares? Where can we send our mixes, I wondered? (oh, and here’s a tip for those who don’t have a four track machine: record the entire cassette to your computer. Make two files, one per side of the cassette. But ‘side B’ in reverse mode, and import both into your favorite multi track program and start mixing)

A few days after I wrote this I went into my studio where I have 2 old four track cassette players, one normal speed (who actually belonged to Roel Meelkop) and a double speed one. Connected that to a mixer and some sound effects, and played around for some time, recording everything, went home and chopped up the entire 90 or so minutes into nine separate pieces with a total playing time of some 37 minutes and uploaded it to the guy who send me the thing. It’s been available as a download for some time, but now the CDR is available as part of the Orphanology series, under the letter ‘W’ of Frans de Waard. 23 copies have been made!