Bay-area-style-blend-all-the-genres-core...from El Segundo.
João Eduardo De Faria / Cogumelo Records Interview 2005 (Author Unknown, Translation By Cantapaya)
☝The founder of Cogumelo (yes, the really old guy) and Alex / Thornspawn...
“Dealing with metal back in the 80’s was sacrilegious stuff.”
In the recent history of western music, every preeminent scene or movement was born from the partnership of talented musicians (or the peculiar, at least) and people willing to support the recording and distribution of these groups. From Country to Punk Rock, it has always been like that.
For the metal scene in Minas Gerais during the 80’s, Cogumelo was responsible for making it phonographically possible. Established in 1980 as a rock record store, it also became a recording label when its owners João Eduardo de Faria Filho and Creusa Pereira de Faria (aka Patty), decided to expand the business in 1985. They noticed how the number of bands and people interested in metal was rising in Belo Horizonte and decided to release a record that showcased that. They released the split between Overdose and Sepultura through Cogumelo Produções, which would later become Cogumelo Records.
It all worked out, and from then on, Cogumelo was responsible for launching pretty much every metal band from Belo Horizonte and built itself a respectable legacy. Nowadays, it boasts over 150 releases in its catalog. From the seminal Minas Gerais bands, to Ratos de Porão and Pato Fu, up until the new metal generation of Belo Horizonte.
It was said that, in Belo Horizonte during the 80’s, if you flew over the Augusto Lima avenue, between the Rio de Janeiro and Espírito Santo streets, you could see a huge black spot. That was a bunch of metalheads getting together around the Cogumelo store.
In 2005, I spoke to the owner João Eduardo, who told me a little about the first years of the label...
Cogumelo as a record store exists since 1980. How were things back then?
When the store was founded in 1980, it was in Avenida Augusto de Lima 339, on the corner with Rio de Janeiro street. It was a common rock record store. It moved out of that place in 1998. The store itself is 25 years old, and the label is 20. We had good visibility here in Minas Gerais, unlike São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. In Rio de Janeiro there isn’t even any Heavy Metal, back in the 80’s there was Dorsal Atlântica, Taurus, Azul Limão, it was actually a good scene. The problem with Rio is that the mentality is a little bit different. Over here people are into the actual metal scene, it was always like that. It may have gone through several phases, but the metal thing here has always been strong. So much that the record label has been active this whole time, constantly releasing Heavy Metal and Hardcore material. There was a time when we turned a little towards Pop, in the 90’s, when we released Pato Fu, Defalla, Tianastácia, afterwards we jumped out of that ship because nowadays you need a lot of money to release that kind of sound: you gotta pay a lot of fucking cash, a lot of promotion. Nowadays we don’t have the structure to support that.
I imagine that was a symptom of the times.
Yeah, that whole Grunge bullshit came in. The only ones that you could salvage from that was Nirvana, Soundgarden and Mudhoney. Everything else was shit, you know? That was the issue, it weakened the metal scene, including in the US. While that grunge thing went on, Heavy Metal had its legs broken. Only by the end of the 90’s things started working out again. Around 6 or 7 years ago metal started coming back strong – both in Europe and in the US. And I think that when people talk about the return of the 80’s, I think they’re wrong. It’s the return of Heavy Metal’s base itself. Because the bands that are coming back stronger are bands from the 70’s: Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Mötorhead…so, if bands are coming back, they are coming back to a rediscovery niche market. Both oldschool folks and today’s kids are listening to these bands.
Let’s try to determine a chronology. The store is founded in 1980, how was the metal scene back then?
The metal thing really started to stick in Brazil around ’84. In 1985 it gained a lot of strength because of Rock in Rio, which was when it all got a huge boost. We were starting to realize that as a store (who opened the store was actually my wife, Patty, at the time I didn’t even think of working in the business). And the Heavy Metal thing, which was amplified by Rock in Rio, really got our attention. We were always into rock, we had a rock record store and saw that metal was a very strong niche market. So we worked towards making a connection with São Paulo, where that scene was also growing strong, there was the Woodstock store, Galeria do Rock, Devil Discos, Rock Brigade was starting out as well…
When we looked into this Heavy Metal thing, we noticed there was a scene here in Belo Horizonte. There were some good bands, playing shows already. But it was just a bunch of kids, really. We took those kids and gave them some support and structure. We had a junction of very important factors in Belo Horizonte: the talent of these kids, the support of the Cogumelo label and the first studio at the time with the technology and conditions to make quality work for these bands, "JG". It’s considered to be at the same level of, for example, Kreator, Sodom, Destruction, bands that recorded in foreign countries. Bands here were at the same level of foreign bands in terms of sound. And the guys here were in touch with the guys over there.
Sepultura, Sarcófago and others contacted other bands by mail, traded fanzines and demo tapes. They were in touch with Death, Kreator, Sodom, there was a huge exchange of information. It’s even hard to talk about a pioneer band, because there was that information exchange and bands mirrored each other. If you take the sonority of bands like Destruction, Sodom, Kreator and Death, and compare it to the local bands, you can find several similarities, both in themes and song structure. It’s death, thrash, black metal, so bands benefitted from that support and Cogumelo could not have come so far without those bands and a quality studio. It was the right time, with the right bands, and us giving them support. Without those factors, there wouldn’t the anything.
When did it start looking like a proper scene?
That would be around the same time as the first Metal BH (First Heavy Metal festival in Belo Horizonte, which took place in March 1985). Sometime before that we had already noticed there was a scene beginning to form. The thing is, we had Vladimir (Vladimir Korg, Chakal’s vocalist) working in the store with us. Vladimir – and Patty – had a strong connection with those kids, mainly because they were at the store all the time. So, due to that contact, we had the idea to record a split with two bands that had material ready to be recorded. Those bands were Overdose and Sepultura. At the time of the split, Sepultura was raw, and Overdose were way more technical, more polished and all that. Vladimir always lobbied for Sepultura, he was close to them. He followed their recording sessions, helped them with translations, writing lyrics, he had a special affection for Sepultura and that made us focus more on Sepultura as well.
But there were also other active bands, that would be part of Warfare Noise later on: Chakal, Holocausto, Mutilator and the one that really blew up internationally, Sarcófago. Nowadays I consider them the most successful band in our label. They became a cult band, a worldwide reference in Metal even today. They influenced the style, the attitude, lyrics, aesthetics, there are foreign bands all over Europe, mainly in Norway, who shamelessly copy Sarcófago. So, 1985 would be the year when things really came into place.
In March 1986, we organised a huge release show for Sepultura and Overdose’s album at Ginástico. It was also then that we started organising events. This show, our first, was huge, with almost 2000 people in the audience. The line-up was Sepultura, Overdose, Mutilator and Dorsal Atlântica. It was the show where there was the burning of a cross. You see, ’85 and ’86 were defining years, when the whole Metal thing really blew up. It was also when people from outside of Belo Horizonte began paying attention. In 1987, the whole scene was consolidated: practically every band in the label already had their own LP, Sepultura’s third was just coming out, Schizophrenia, Andreas [Kisser] had already moved to Belo Horizonte – Jairo went to play in a cheesy band, kinda poser sounding like Motley Crue, and the band at the time was leaning further and further towards Thrash Metal, starting with Death Metal and being influenced by the Bay Area bands, you know the deal.
The scene was very dynamic back then. When we released Warfare Noise, the other bands were already taking it seriously, playing shows frequently, even traveling to neighboring states to play. Going back to the start…what did we do? We put Sepultura and Overdose on our shoulders, and since we kept in touch with bands and producers from other states, we booked shows for them everywhere in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. That made the Minas Gerais metal expand even further, until then no one knew about it. Shop owners in Rio and São Paulo would see me walk in with the records under my arm and laugh: “Fuck man, that’s ridiculous. A band called Sepultura and another called Overdose? That’s going nowhere”.
And there was nothing like the bands from Belo Horizonte. Of course, there was Vulcano, from Santos, and Dorsal Atlântica from Rio, but they didn’t have the same repercussion. Even here in Belo Horizonte, there was Mutilator for example. In my opinion, Mutilator was a band that could have been as big as Sepultura, because they were really freaking good. They had a really good sound, nice production, aesthetics, but even Sarcófago themselves, whom we thought would be even bigger: we licensed them through Music for Nations and they toured through Europe.
Sepultura was really lucky because they ended up in a label that was growing, Roadrunner. They had Mercyful Fate and some other band from that time, but the thing is, they were establishing their franchise in the US, Roadracer. One of the first bands they signed was Sepultura. They backed Sepultura and it was Sepultura that carried them basically. If you notice, practically every other band in Roadrunner were similar to Sepultura. But we can’t take anything away from Roadrunner, because they were dynamic, constantly keeping up with the trends. So Sepultura was lucky to take advantage of that opportunity, to have the backing of a strong label that believed in them.
With Warfare Noise, Brazil and – in a way – the rest of world, paid more attention to Belo Horizonte. The bands were really good at the musical level. Of course, things weren’t so great when it came to organization. Most bands here didn’t have that entrepreneur vision they should have had. Sepultura was one of the first bands to have that ambition. The bands that were part of the first Warfare Noise were bands that came to our store all the time. We knew them from the festivals, we knew their demo tapes, we sold their tapes in our store, so we had an idea of which bands sold more demos. Our guideline for Warfare Noise was: “which bands are the important ones, that deserve to be in such a compilation?”. And the release was kind of surprising. The release of Sepultura’s Morbid Visions, and Warfare Noise, caught a lot of attention. At the time, besides Germany and the US, there weren’t as many metal bands with that potential anywhere else in the world. Overdose didn’t jump in back then. They were a band with a different kind of structure, and unlike Sepultura, who agreed to record Morbid Visions with us right away, Overdose went looking for other labels to release their material. The following year, in 1987, we started to work on each band’s record because of the demand for Warfare Noise. Everyone was asking about their albums, and those bands had the potential to record LPs. So, in sequence, we released Holocausto, Mutilator, Sarcófago and Chakal. Sepultura’s record came out at the end of the year, which was Schizophrenia, in 1987.
Back then, Schizophrenia, was the record in which Cogumelo invested the most. Both in recording and graphic production. It was the label’s first double cover album. The band was already in rotation throughout Brazil, they had already opened for Venom here in Belo Horizonte, there was a lot of exposure. That was when the gringos really started turning their eyes towards Sepultura.
Anyways, you could say that the apex of the Belo Horizonte metal scene was between 1986 and ’89. It was insane the number of bands that were around in 1989. That was when we released the second Warfare Noise, with Witchhammer, Aamonhammer, Megathrash and Mayhem (though Warfare Noise 2 didn’t have such a big impact).
It wasn’t easy. Dealing with metal in the ‘80s was sacrilegious stuff. Up until the promulgation of the constitution (after Brazil’s military dictatorship ended, in 1988), we had to go to the Federal Police, so they would approve the album’s lyrics. At times they would take the records and make us change the lyrics. Every record until 1988 had to go through the censorship’s eye. Back then Sexthrash would never be approved! No chance! And we had to translate the lyrics for them, we had to bring a copy in Portuguese and another in English. The police didn’t even have people who spoke English. So, we translated it to sound milder, in hopes they would approve it. And it did, because they didn’t understand any of it anyways.
About the copyright issues, does Cogumelo still have the copyrights on Sepultura’s records, for example?
We do, on their first records, Bestial Devastation, Morbid Visions and Schizophrenia. We actually show the record sales to the musicians. But there were some reissues released by Roadrunner, whose licenses were conceded to them. When Roadrunner signed with Sepultura they thought of everything. When they noticed that it was getting big, they got in touch with me, we sealed the contract and licensed the records. We always try to be transparent when it comes to this stuff. If any artist has a problem, thinks they didn’t receive what was due, all they have to do is get in touch with us.
It has happened many times already, guys coming up to me and go: “João, I want to get paid for this and that”. And I’ll say: “no, you can’t get any money. I signed a contract with four people, the whole band. So, I have to pay four people and their heirs.”. Imagine that someone wants to be paid someone else’s royalties: “oh, but that guy died, that other one started doing crack and died as well, you can pay me the royalties.”. And I do, and it doesn’t go well. Then people show up and ask: “fuck, you paid that other guy?”. That’s why we are so careful when it comes to managing intellectual rights. Here at Cogumelo we are transparent, if someone is not happy, just come to us and we’ll set the record straight.
Mellakka - '84 Practice & “R.I.P. Recordings 1984-1986” CD 2004 (FLAC/320)
"Mellakka was a Finnish Hardcore Punk band formed in a small Finnish coast/industrial town called Rauma in year 1983. During their relatively short career in the mid/late 80’s, the band visited the recording studio three times, resulting two ep’s and a three-song demo. A compilation album of these songs was released in 2004 and was named 'R.I.P. recordings 1984-1986'.
Pete and Jappe were friends, and started the band at the age of fifteen (Pete) and sixteen (Jappe). After spending a couple of years banging on cardboard boxes and yelling into the cleaning brushes in Jappe’s father’s boiler room. They were also spending time together listening punk rock. Bands like the Ramones, Sex Pistols, U.K. Subs and Lama were the first big names, but the final kick for forming a punk band came when the guys got a hold of Discharge’s 'Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing' LP, and 'Why?' EP. That was the time when the first Propaganda Records’ compilation album was released too, the new Finnish hc-punk bands on that record, like Riistetyt, Kaaos, Terveet Kädet all sounded awesome. Then they had the pleasure of seeing Appendix and Destrucktions playing live at their home town. That was a really influential hc gig, especially Destrucktions. Without these bands it could have been a really different story.
After getting their hands on some equipment, the guys started to practice in Jappe’s parents garage. After practicing for a while, the band was named Mellakka, and the first real line-up was Pete (voc), Kapulainen (bass), Janne (guitar), Jappe (drums). The band was ready to make it’s first gigs, and did, but quite soon the vocalist Pete left the band, and joined the other hc band in Rauma punk scene, Pohjasakka, as a bass player. In the meantime, Jappe met yet another bass player called Holkka. Kapulainen was ready to sing and Holkka naturally took the job of playing the bass. This change seemed to work, and the band sounded much better than before.
Soon Mellakka had enough new songs and it was time to visit the studio. The first Ei EP was published in autumn ‘84 by the guys themselves, mainly because nobody else would do it. Almost all the records at that time were published by the Propaganda Records, but Mellakka thought that they should release it themselves. All the other new bands were doing the same, Sekaannus, Massacre and bands like that.
The musical influences of the band can be spotted on the record. There was some disappointments after finishing the EP, it didn’t sound nowhere near as great as 'Hear Nothing', but at the end of the day the guys had to be more than pleased with the result. Everything in the studio went quite well for being the first time. The place was called Laser Studio and it was built in an old barn. It was run by a religious fanatic fool, but the guy who did the actual recording/mixing was a hippie called Pertti Palonen and he really has quite a lot to do in how both of the EPs and the demo are sounding...a very nice guy. They have only good memories of him. He is probably the main reason why all of the Mellakka recordings are made in that same place. The line-up for the Ei EP was Kapulainen (voc), Janne (guitar), Jappe (drums), Holkka (bass). The guitarist Janne left the band right after the EP was released. Luckily there was a help near by. A guitarist named Perttula was digging the Ei EP hard, and was more than happy to join the group. The band continued to practice and made some new songs. Soon it was time to hit the studio for the second time.
Itsenäisyyspaivä EP from January ‘85 was made for Rat Poison Records run by Mr P. Järveläinen. Rat Poison published other punk/hc music too at that time, bands like Kuolleet Kukat. After visiting one practice session and hearing the new songs, Järveläinen reserved new studio time for the band. Only two weeks before the studio, the singer Kapulainen had enough, threw the mic to the floor saying 'FYA, I never gonna sing a goddamn note again!', and just like that, it was over for him. Gotta respect that. Well anyways, the band was in trouble, new singers didn’t grow on trees as they say. In desperation the guys even called to Mike Poison, who is/was known for singing for the great hc band called Destrucktions. He promised to visit to the studio, to see what can be done, but didn’t sound TOO excited...It was getting clearer and clearer that only one man can do this job. The band got together with the original singer Pete, and after a long discussion and convincing, he decided to join the band again, and this time he stayed for good. The band did get the practice they needed before the studio and everything went just right after all. The guys thought that the result was far better than the first time around, sound wise, song wise, in all the ways. The band added some guitar riffs, solos and other non-hc-tricks in their songs, which made this record a bit more interesting than the first one. But no success without some losses, soon after the second EP was out, Holkka left the band.
Perttula’s good friend Altti was to replace Holkka right away, as the band had some gigs to take care of. First he played the bass, later the guitar. The year ‘85 went by making new songs again and practicing, maybe more than ever. The absolute best gig was in Helsinki at Lepakko 5.18.1985. With them there were at least Rattus, Maho Neitsyt and Painajainen. There is VHS footage of that gig, but it’s recorded so poorly, that you can’t really tell what song they are playing at times, but ‘85-’86 they were at their very best form.
The band tried to find a publisher for their LP, and there was some discussions but that was far as it went and it never came thru. Anyways, the band decided to visit the studio just to make a demo if nothing else and have some fun. The result was three songs (Totuus II, Anti-Kaikki, Turhaa Taistelua), recorded in five hours, which have a lot of musical influences by metal/thrash scene of that time. This demo was recorded in February 1986, and was never even meant to be released, as they were going to record the songs again later with more time in the studio. The line-up for the demo was Perttula (bass), Jappe (drums), Pete (voc), Altti (guitar). Mellakka had about ten to fifteen other songs from the same period of time than these three songs, but never got the time to record them. Damn shame. After the demo was made the band continued for some time, but the guys of the band started to get bored with the small town and soon everybody was leaving the place to different directions. It was time to lay the band to rest.
Mellakka has practiced together few times after that. Last session was in 1993. The band got together and played few days just for fun with the line-up: Perttula (guitar), Jappe (drums), Pete (voc) and Sätkä (bass). This is probably the line-up the band would have if they should play together again."
Click to embiggen...
Selfish - "Patriotism Is Not Excuse" Demo 1990 (FLAC)
Pre Otto, but still insanely "Japcore" (upbeat, noiseless)
sung in a shockingly unexpected Keller-style...
Excrement Of War & Doom - 1990 Demo & Rehearsals (FLAC)
The ropey remnants of Fagin's final brood, snatching ears (and snatch) with their demo
and a split practice with Doom. Admit it, I should have been an editor for the NME...
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Laxative Souls - "Twist And Decease" Cassette 1982 (256) & "Desinfektionsraum" Cassette 1984 (320) With Scans
"Laxative Souls, also known by the contraction 'LXSS', was one of the very first post-industrial music projects on the Italian scene. Born in the early 1980s in the province of Ascoli Piceno, according to many critics LXSS was chronologically second only to 'MB'. The project was from the mind of Roberto Marinelli and takes it's name from Dante's Inferno's dialog of souls in purgatory, a literal translation of which s not reflected in the English language, thus generating a nonsensical phrase. His music is a mixture of electronic rage, vocal distortions, concrete music, feedback generated by self-assembly of electrical circuits and cut-ups of documentaries, recordings and radio proclamations. Less dehumanizing than Maurizio Bianchi, the compositions of LXSS seem more linked to an emotional interpretation of the social organism, where in the evolution of the songs and albums it seems to elaborate an almost narrative development of the sound material.
The first album under the name LXSS was released after two years of exhausting research and construction of samples, for the 'Multiple Configuration' label of Roberto Marinelli himself, for which 'TAC', 'Tasaday', 'Maze 1066' and 'Luca Miti' also recorded. In 'Twist And Decease' Marinelli traces a series of violent deaths that have crossed the historical, political and social universe, using an almost documentary style. From Umberto The First killed by the anarchist Gaetano Bresci to Aldo Moro killed by the Red Brigades, from the aerospace accident of Vladimir Michajlovič Komarov to the mass exterminations of concentration camps, the narratives sometimes develop following documentary evidence and elaborating compositions around recordings, interviews and voice documents concerning the events themselves, and at other times in an emotional way through a succession of sound images and 'suggestions'. In his narrative evolutions then, Marinelli never seems to give value to the catastrophic spectacularization of crime news ,trying instead to maintain the maximum critical lucidity in the poetic treatment of events.
In 1984 Marinelli published the album entitled 'Desinfektionsraum', a cassette focused on the final solution of the Jewish question and more particularly on the extermination camp of Auschwitz, in which, according to Ambrosini, the fusion between poetic-sound processing of images and documentary narration reaches its compositional apex, also managing to trace a link between those misdeeds and the inability of our society to analyze any event in a non-rhetorical way."
Inertia Kills – "Tous Des Aveugles" Discography CD (1995/2009)
"Terrorisateur Québécois"...PUTAIN DE MERDE ILS AVAIENT RAISON!!!
(Terrorisateur Japonais: https://selfishfew.blogspot.com/2020/10/324-1997-demo-customized-circle-cd-1999.html)
CDR Culture: Three Friendship "Mixtapes" Of Industrial & Neofolk (Mostly) From Justin & Ray...
"A mixtape (alternatively mix-tape or mix tape) is a compilation of music, typically from multiple sources, recorded onto a medium. With origins in the 1980s, the term normally describes a homemade compilation of music onto a cassette tape, CD, or digital playlist. The songs are either ordered sequentially or made into a continuous program by 'beat matching' the songs and creating seamless transitions at their beginnings and endings with fades or abrupt edits. Essayist Geoffrey O'Brien described the mixtape as perhaps the most widely practiced American art form.
Homemade mix tapes became common in the 1980s. Although the compact audio cassette by Philips appeared at the 1963 Berlin Radio Show, the sound quality of cassettes was not good enough to be seriously considered for music recording until further advances in chemical formulations of the tape. Before the introduction of the audio cassette, the creation of a pop music compilation required specialized or cumbersome equipment, such as a reel-to-reel or 8 track recorder, that was often inaccessible to the casual music fan. As cassette tapes and recorders grew in popularity and portability, these technological hurdles were lowered to the point where the only resources required to create a mix were a handful of cassettes and a cassette recorder connected to a source of pre-recorded music, such as a radio or LP player. The 8-track tape cartridge was more popular for music recording during much of the 1960s, as the cassette was originally only mono and intended for vocal recordings only, such as in office dictation machines. But improvements in fidelity finally allowed the cassette to become a major player. The ready availability of the cassette and higher quality home recording decks to serve the casual home user allowed the cassette to become the dominant tape format, to the point that the 8 track tape disappeared shortly after the turn of the 1980s. The growth of the mixtape was also encouraged by improved quality and increased popularity of audio cassette players in car entertainment systems, and by the introduction of the Sony Walkman in 1979.
A distinction should be drawn between a private mixtape, which is usually intended for a specific listener or private social event, and a public mixtape, or 'party tape', usually consisting of a recording of a club performance by a DJ and intended to be sold to multiple individuals. In the 1970s, such DJs as Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Afrika Bambaataa and the Soulsonic Force, Kool Herc and the Herculoids, and DJ Hollywood would often distribute recordings of their club performances via audio cassette, as well as customized recordings (often prepared at exorbitant prices) for individual tape purchasers. These recordings tended to be of higher technical ability than home-made mixtapes and incorporated techniques such as beat matching and scratching. One 1974 article in Billboard reported: 'Tapes were originally dubbed by jockeys to serve as standbys for times when they did not have turntables on hand. The tapes represent each jockey's concept of programming, placing, and sequencing of records. The music is heard without interruption. One-to three-hour programs bring anywhere from $30 to $75 per tape, mostly reel-to-reel, but increasingly on 8-Track and cassette.'
Throughout the 1980s, mixtapes were a highly visible element of youth culture. However, the increased availability of CD burners and MP3 players and the gradual disappearance of cassette players in cars and households led to a decline in the popularity of the compact audio cassette as a medium for homemade mixes. The high point of traditional mixtape culture was arguably the publication of Nick Hornby's novel 'High Fidelity' in 1995. Since then, mixtapes have largely been replaced by mix CDs and shared MP3 playlists, which are more durable, can hold more songs, and require minutes (rather than hours) to prepare.
While the process of recording a mix onto an audio cassette from LPs or compact discs is technically straightforward, many music fans who create more than one mixtape are eventually compelled to confront some of the practical and aesthetic challenges involved in the format. From a practical standpoint, such issues as avoiding an excessive amount of blank tape at the end of one side (which requires careful planning of the length of each side of the mix) and reducing the audible click between songs (which requires mastery of the pause button on the cassette recorder) have been identified as part of the shared experience of mixtape aficionados. From an aesthetic point of view, many enthusiasts believe that because a tape player, unlike a CD player, lacks the ability to skip from song to song, the mixtape needs to be considered in its entirety. This requires the mixtape creator to consider the transitions between songs, the effects caused by juxtaposing a soft song with a loud song, and the overall 'narrative arc' of the entire tape. Many enthusiasts also devote substantial attention to the packaging of a mix tape intended as a gift, sometimes going so far as to create cover art and customized liner notes.
From an artistic point of view, many creators of mix tapes seem to regard them as a form of emotional self-expression, although whether a mix tape retains the same web of emotional associations when passed from its creator to the recipient is, at best, debatable. Some argue that in selecting, juxtaposing, or even editing originally unrelated tracks of pop music into a new work of art, the author of a mix tape moves from passive listener to archivist, editor, and finally active participant in the process of musical creation. On a very basic level, the creation of a mix tape can be seen as an expression of the individual compiler's taste in music, often put forward for the implicit approval of the tape's recipient."
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"'Cassette culture' refers to the practices associated with amateur production and distribution of home-recorded music via audio cassettes. Several factors led to it's popularity: the development of the format and widespread availability of tape decks allowed participants to produce copies of their music (or other's music via 'tape trading') rather cheaply. Additionally, multi-track equipment that used cassettes and electronic instruments such as drum machines all became more affordable, portable, and of fairly high quality. These factors finally made recording at home and duplication of those recordings a low cost alternative to professional studios and distribution services.
In the United Kingdom cassette culture was at its peak in what is known as the 'post-punk' period, 1978–1984. UK cassette culture (as in the U.S.) was mainly championed by punk groups, industrial musicians, and marginal artists in general. Individuals would often freely copy their releases in exchange for a blank tape and return postage, but there also existed many small 'tape labels'. There was great diversity amongst those labels, some were entirely bedroom based, utilizing new home copying technologies, whilst others were more organized, functioning in a similar way to established music companies. Some also did vinyl releases, or later developed into vinyl labels.
In the US, cassette culture activity extended through the late 1980s and into the 1990s. Although larger operations made use of commercial copying services, anybody who had access to a tape-to-tape cassette player could release a tape and publicize it in the network of fanzines and newsletters that served niche markets. Therefore cassette culture was an ideal and very democratic method for making available music that was never likely to have mainstream appeal. Many found in cassette culture sounds that were more imaginative, challenging, and groundbreaking than output released on major and even mid-level record labels.
The packaging of cassette releases, whilst sometimes amateurish, was also an aspect of the format in which a high degree of creativity and originality could be found. For the most part, packaging relied on traditional plastic shells with a photocopied insert (though some labels, no matter how small the operation, made more of an effort). In the late 1990s cassette culture began to decline with the advent of new technologies and methods of distribution such as CDRs and MP3s, though in recent years it has seen a small yet highly dedicated revival."
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