Of Mix Tape Cassettes and Playlists

Back in the 80s, you were either at the mercy of radio stations to play a song you liked, or you had to buy the record. But, of course, there was no way our meager allowances could quench our unsatiable thirst for music. That's where cassettes came in: one audio cassette was  good for 90 minutes of music, suitable for two albums. But not just any cassette would do: Sony, Maxwell, TDM, and BASF were some of the brands available in Germany, and each had its fans.

Quality cassettes were not cheap either, but getting a new pack of ten in your hands meant the exciting promise of hours and hours of new music.

You then gave the cassettes to others who would record some records of their vinyl collection for you. Or, you traded albums and recorded them yourself. Some kids were never seen without a shopping bag from one of the local record stores.

But the most incredible thing were custom mix tapes. They were like playlists but unique and immutable, often with customized, homemade cover art. You also could not easily fast forward or shuffle. If you had two cassette recorders, you could copy them with some loss of quality, but only very few had this costly equipment to their disposal.

You had to record mix tapes in real-time. In addition, you had to pay full attention to the music to press start and stop at the right time. While one song played, you would think about what music would be best to follow it. It was an immersive experience, notably if you created the cassette for someone special.

I often thought about recreating mix tapes with playlists. However, with cassettes, the journey was the destination, and there is not much journey in dragging and dropping tracks on a computer.

Recording copyrighted music on cassettes for personal use was frowned upon but tolerated by the music industry, which is not true with digital copies. Any attempts to recreate the cassette feeling, for example, on SoundCloud, would run into resistance.

So playlists are all we have for sharing music these days, but you can be assured that a lot of heart and soul is going into the music selection for the #glamglarepick playlist. So read on and learn about the seven latest additions.

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Song Pick of the Day

Listen to/watch all seven songs on YouTube. Follow our daily updated playlists on YouTube and Spotify for the 50 latest Song Picks of the Day.  Thank you for following us and sharing the excitement.

The UK indie-rock band Fake a Smile goes all dark with their new song “Don’t Stop.” The track is produced by Gianluca Buccellati, whose name has popped up with quite a few artists since he worked with Alto Parks on her outstanding debut album. There is also a great video for the song:

Mother Tongues are a Canadian duo comprised of Charise Aragoza and Lukas Cheung. “Worm Day” is an abstract song, but it exudes the carefreeness of summer, and the video depicts a series of good memories in the band’s past.

The next song is also a good kick-off anthem for summer: “The Power” is “eating the whole apple,” says Blue Broderick, aka Diners, and in their hometown of Phoenix, AZ, that means not holding back and enjoying all sides of life. “The Power” is the first single of Diner’s upcoming album Domino, out on August 18 via Bar None.

It is not the season to think about “Friday, The 13th.” However, the song is not about bad luck and horror. Maybe it is a reference to the day when Holly Blair hung with her friend Charlotte Reed where they whipped up a song. “In about 5 minutes, I had written the melody and lyrics and while Charlotte was working on building the track over the guitar loop,” Holly recalls. It is a beautiful example of how easy access to production tools can turn spontaneity into great art.

Elke and I discussed which vibe we got from this next song, “Stick Around,” by Canadian artist Kelsey McNulty aka Good Fortune. She felt the 60s-themed TWA Hotel, I said James Bond movie. We probably meant the same thing, but the bottom line is that this atmospheric song will transport you to a different place.

Emily McNally is a singer, songwriter, and producer from Brooklyn, and she even masters her songs, something which many musicians refrain to do. There is something fascinating about a track that comes completely from the brain of one person, and in the case of the lush synth-pop “midnight glitter,” it does not lead to any deficit. The track is about “coyly embracing my own sexuality,” says Emily.

“Dating is haunted,” concludes Danish singer/songwriter eee gee, and with the help of animator Nicolai Bruun this idea becomes quite literal in the video. “ghost house” is on eee gee’s second album SHE-REX, out on September 1.

Also happening at glamglare

The New York trio Blonde Redhead announced their 11th album in 30 years - the first since 2014. They released a new single, “Snowman,” which shows they are still on top of their game. Elke and I are fans, and their 2007 album “23” is probably one of my all-time favorites.

Do yourself a favor and listen to Avalon Emerson’s & The Charm if you haven’t already. Avalon comes from DJing and electronic music, and all that is in this record, but also a lot more than you would expect. She claims not to be a singer, but her vocals are just lovely, like a ray of sunshine. If you want to know more about how this album got together, read the article on MusicTech.

Nine Photos from our visit to the Jamaica Wildlife Refuge

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