When the push came to make recorded music more durable and portable than just vinyl, first the eight-track was introduced, and then the cassette.
It’s easy to forget what a revelation the cassette was, but it transformed recorded music in tremendous ways. Cassettes could be played in most vehicles, on both portable boom boxes and unwieldy home stereos, and could be taken just about anywhere else thanks to the Sony Walkman. When compact discs entered the scene, cassette’s days were suddenly numbered. Much more fluid and less susceptible to the elements than cassettes, CDs are also closer to vinyl in its form, right down to the skips and scratches, and even its shape. Cassettes thrived for some time as a lower-cost alternative to the CD, then were slowly phased out.
Unlike eight-tracks, whose fans are limited, many children of the eighties still hold fond to their cassette memories. They were introduced to music through a cassette’s spooled tape, and recollections of long walks with a Walkman defined their formative years. With the music industry in something of a tailspin, to put it lightly, listeners and labels are thinking outside of the compact disc case. CDs were never a popular format for audiophiles in the first place, and every CD buyer has had some maddening experience with a skipping track or scratched-up disc.
Many labels have responded by delving back into vinyl or going digital, but a handful of labels are unearthing the cassette as a viable musical format once again. Among the labels reinventing the cassette are Austin imprints Natrix Natrix and Autobus records, both of whom have cassette releases planned in for the near future. Natrix Natrix are a home-based label run started by Seth Whaland and Rhonda Turnbough, who devoted their spare time to opening the doors of their home to friends and traveling musicians in the form of house shows, and to making own limited edition cassette releases, starting with a Viking Moses/Adam Lipman tape and continuing on with cassettes by artists including John Rose and others. Autobus can maybe best be described as the label outlet of the Tonewheel Collective, a group of musicians who have gone on to form or join bands including Brazos, Ink, Peel and Voxtrot. Label manager Tommy McCutchon is overseeing the label's releases, and in his time aside from that he also runs his own respected reissue label, Unseen Worlds.
What is it about cassettes that first attracted the individuals who run these labels, and continues to attract them today? Says Seth Whaland, “I like the compactness of the cassette itself. It is small and durable and it never skips or does any of the other annoying things that CDs do. It also has its own hiss, which makes it endearing like vinyl.” When it comes to the compact disc versus cassette issue, he says, “It is THE MOST annoying thing in the world to be getting into a song and then it skips. CD skipping rage easily trumps road rage.” Tommy McCutchon’s answer is an aesthetic one, if not completely tongue-in-cheek: “Cassettes look better than CDs when strewn about, which is a plus.” Austin itself has its own history with indie acts and cassettes, and McCutchon adds, “Moving to Austin and buying all the Daniel Johnston cassettes is a really fond memory.” Many of Johnston’s releases were originally released on the cassette label Stress Records, and continue to be sold through mail order and at select stores.
Due to their market rarity, a cassette release is notably uncommon, and not everyone can participate. McCutchon doesn’t even own a tape deck, and Whaland knows that those who do are a dwindling minority. “Less and less people have cassette players, and that is a drawback if I want to make someone a mix, or if I want them to hear something we've released,” he says. As far as other drawbacks, Whaland mentions that “Some cassettes I have don't seem to get very loud,” plus “they also have to be flipped. But since the tape stops on its own, that is never a big deal.” Perhaps not, but it’s something many listeners take for granted with their towers of CDs and gazillion mp3s. Some might even argue that having to flip a record or tape interrupts the continuity of the album, but that may be splitting hairs more than anything else. Because cassette releases these days have limited runs and appeal to a certain segment of the population, a tape that comes out on Natrix Natrix or Autobus has the appeal of being attractively insular. Autobus’ first release will be an odds and ends collection by solo artist and former Sound Team member Bill Baird. A cassette release works for Baird’s album because as an outtakes album from an artist with whom many aren’t familiar with in the first place, those who want to own this release will already be part of a dedicated few. “I think the music sort of has to demand the intimacy of the format to be serious about doing it,” says McCutchon.
Just a couple of cassette labels in the Austin area, tiresomely referred to as the “Live Music Capitol of the World,” doesn’t point toward any sort of tape renaissance in the near future. What it does point toward is a continuing devotion to good music in all formats, whether it’s spinning, un-spooling, or whatever else. And that’s a good thing however you want to play it.
You may republish this article if you link back to this original.
