My Cassette Pet

Craig Stephen on the cassette tape mini-revival …

Defying logic, there has been something of a cassette revival over the past few years. We even have a Cassette Store Day – the format’s equivalent of Record Store Day, which has done much to revive sales in vinyl.

Its revival is one of the more curious revival movements because for decades the humble cassette effectively disappeared from store shelves. Well, in the west anyway. In some African countries, the Middle East and South Asia the tape has never gone out of fashion.

They’re cheap and don’t take up space so you can see their attraction. With new release vinyl albums now costing $NZ60 and upwards, it’s clear why a far more economical format might gain traction.

I wasn’t entirely convinced about the availability of cassettes so I had a look around. The JB Hi-Fi website has a section for cassettes for sale, and as I write there’s 15 listed. Four of those are reissues by De La Soul and there’s also 72 Seasons by Metallica and Autofiction by Suede. The retailer’s prices vary from $28 up to $49, but generally they are around the same price as the CD.

Marbecks didn’t have a separate tape section but did have a pack of blank cassettes, Southbound in Auckland had the same number as JB Hi-Fi and Real Groovy had 115 listed, which I guess was a mix of new and second hand.

There are even tape-only labels in New Zealand catering to bands that don’t have the money to invest in vinyl. This is a subject to be developed for later.

 In the big music markets, sales are on the up. The British Phonographic Industry says cassette sales have increased for 10 consecutive years – rising from less than 4000 in 2012 to more than 195,000 in 2022. That’s still small fry compared to vinyl and digital, but it’s a massive increase nevertheless. It’s the same for the United States while in Japan there are cassette-only stores and Tower Records, which is still around in the country but not anywhere else, has increased its shelf space of the format.

In the 1980s the cassette was sold at the same price as vinyl. Back then blank tapes abounded and the mixtape was an artform. This was a way of making tapes for your mates, or for yourself from a selection of albums.

You could select whatever songs you wanted, and in a preferred order too. Sod a ballad, I want just fast tracks, or I could rearrange an album whereby the weaker songs are at the start. Furthermore, I could tag on B-sides and unreleased tracks.

Meanwhile, live gigs were easily recorded and issued on cassette, providing a source - the legendary bootleg - for fans that otherwise wasn’t available in the pre-internet age.

While much of the technology we have used in the past has become obsolete (eight-track cartridge, mini-disks etc), cassettes, like vinyl, still have niche value for the music fan.

This mini revival comes as this writer is culling a box of cassettes. I have the ability to play them, I just don’t, so something has to give. I gave three to an op shop: the Stranglers’ No More Heroes because I now have the vinyl version, but the Wedding Present cassingle was a no-brainer: I just don’t like the band anymore.

Here a small selection from my all-time homemade favourite tapes:

The Associates double: Sulk, the American edition, which is slightly different from the UK release, is on one side, and Perhaps, released a couple of years later, is on the opposite. This was one of the first tapes I had and was made by a friend who introduced me to the band and other Scottish delights such as the Jesus and Mary Chain and the Cocteau Twins.

Midnight Oil 1982 to 2003: I’ve got very little Midnight Oil music as they were an oft-erratic band so it made perfect sense to go through half a dozen albums and fill up two sides of their best songs.

 Mix and match Vol 67: Hot Hot Heat – three tracks; Electric Six – three tracks; Maximo Park – nine tracks; and a bunch of tracks by the likes of Wolfmen, Razorlight, The Rapture, Stephen Duffy, and Manic St Preachers. This is quite a varied selection. The Maximo Park tracks are a selection of the B-sides compilation and 2007’s Our Earthly Pleasures.

Reggae Classics Vol 48: Reggae is so wonderful and there’s so many compilations around. I used to get loads of them out of the Napier City library and stick them on tape. This one features Gregory Isaacs, Mikey Dread, Poet and the Roots, Junior Murvin and many others.

Godzone’s Gifts: There are some great acts from New Zealand. This mixtape includes Goldenhorse, The Front Lawn, Collapsing Cities, The Bats, The Clean and Cut off Your Hands. Bands you might be challenged to lump together but it actually melds quite well.

David Bowie 1980-84: Nobody could truthfully say the eighties were a productive era for Bowie so this condenses the best of the early part of the decade, starting with Scary Monsters and Super Creeps, which takes up most of the tape. By 1984 and the Tonight album, he’s lost it, and the quality avoidance would continue until 1993.

And now for some that were commercially available, made in a factory.

Various – C86: The superstar of a long line of New Musical Express cassettes and a legend of compilations. A Nuggets for the 1980s.  Somebody has even written a book about the cassette which was later released on vinyl that same year (and much later on a 3-CD deluxe edition). The timing of the release was crucial. An underground indie scene had been brewing for a couple of years and came to the boil in 1986 with clubs and scores of releases. The twee or jangly scene featured bands that apparently only wore anoraks, had floppy fringes and played guitar music that sounded like the Byrds or Love.

 The first side of C86 included many of those scenesters: Primal Scream, The Pastels, The Bodines, Mighty Mighty, The Shop Assistants, the Soup Dragons and the Wedding Present. If it was only a round-up of all the greatest twee songs of the time it probably wouldn’t have the impact it did. Conversely, an album that showcased a burgeoning scene was in fact a varied, Catholic collection with the inclusion of agit rock-dance band Age of Chance, sarcastic bastards Half Man Half Biscuit, and acts such as Miaow!, Stump and The Mackenzies. It was a deft adventure into a world that had no boundaries.

The The – Soul Mining: Soul Mining is a classic of the time but at seven tracks was deemed to be too short for American tastes even though most of the tracks stretched to more than five minutes and ‘Giant’ clocked in at 9:34. So a version of ‘Perfect’ was added to some versions and the UK cassette version had another five goodies. It’s likely that at least one of these tracks was from the discarded Pornography of Despair album.

The Phoenix Foundation – Trans Fatty Acid: This tape came with initial editions of the band’s Give Up Your Dreams vinyl album released in 2015. Of the four tracks (all great btw), there’s a special cover of Can’s hit single ‘I Want More’. 

The Cure – Standing on a Beach, The Singles (And Unavailable B-sides): Now, isn’t that title a giveaway or what. With the extra space on the tape, there was always the opportunity to expand the track listing, and in this edition the 13 singles were joined by a dozen B-sides. These included the likes of ‘Another Journey By Train’ and ‘The Exploding Boy’. Some tracks were B-sides for a good reason, but some could have been included on a studio album. 

Various – The World At One: Another NME cassette only release available by sending a cheque or postal order and hoping that you received it in a week or so. The World At One was one of the most valuable of the series as it introduced readers to music from Bulgaria to Zambia to the French Antilles. Readers could hear almost certainly for the first time Jali Musa Jawara or Kass Kass. It was issued in 1987 as the term ‘world music’ was becoming a saleable asset.

Orange Juice – The Orange Juice: Over to my OJ-obsessed mate Scouse Neil for this one … “The Orange Juice cassette, which I got from a Woollies sale for the giveaway price of £1.99, had the 10-track album on one side, and a whole side of B-sides and 12-inch mixes on the other. Considering I hadn’t heard some of these versions before, this was like gold dust to an OJ fan. Apparently, the tape version sold more than the vinyl, which is not saying much since it was the only one of their albums not to make the Top 100.” Scouse Neil did perk up a bit at learning that the album reached No.28 in the New Zealand charts in 1984.

Bow Wow Wow – Your Cassette Pet: Released in November 1980 only on cassette, and therefore it was classified as a single for the UK charts. They were musically inept but something of pioneers as a single released a few months earlier ‘C-30,C-60,C-90’ (a nod to the different lengths of tapes) was apparently the world’s first cassette single.

For the record, the first compact cassette, in the format that became million sellers, was first introduced in 1963. The first Walkman appeared in 1979.

Classic Album Review: The Associates - Sulk (1982)

Craig Stephen on a Scottish indie masterclass …

In 1981 The Associates were an eclectic taste, a semi-experimental group known only to a select clique.

But by 1982 the Scottish act had become commercial property, with top 10 hits, magazine covers and appearances on Top of the Pops.

The reason for this incredible turnaround in fortunes was the album Sulk, which remains to this reviewer’s ears the best Scottish album of all time (yes, even better than the Bay City Rollers’ debut) if not one of the finest albums with geographical limitations removed.

It was adventurous, brazen, brilliantly written and musically magnificent while retaining the independent streak of the immense talents of Billy MacKenzie and Alan Rankine. The duo were The Associates although at the time it was officially a four-piece. Sulk was glamorous enough to pique the interest of the New Romantics and DJs on Radio Happy, and dark and esoteric enough for those with more eclectic tastes.

It included the poignant and emotionally charged ‘Party Fears Two’, which was good enough for the British top 10 and the spur for the success that was Sulk. It was written some years before its release and was apparently inspired by the sight of a couple of obnoxious teenage girls at a party, hence the title. It could explain the line: “The alcohol loves you while turning you blue.”

 MacKenzie, who hailed from Dundee, and Rankine, of Edinburgh, met in 1976, just as punk was about to kick off. They formed two proto bands before landing at The Associates. Their initial foray into the world was an under-produced and unauthorised version of Bowie’s ‘Boys Keep Swinging’, which certainly got them noticed. The Affectionate Punch (1980) and the semi-compilation Fourth Drawer Down (1981) followed on independent labels. They were warmly welcomed in the music press but just a little too esoteric for the general listener.

Through a complex “big brother” hierarchical record label system, The Associates found themselves a deal with Warner Brothers, and a large advance, some of which was used to house MacKenzie’s beloved whippet dogs in their own hotel room and feed them smoked salmon.

Nevertheless, they recorded in what has been described as a “drab, workmanlike space” in a grey, industrial location. Still, they were able to utilise what they had and this resulted in densely layered keyboards, echo effects and expansive reverbs. Listen closely and you’ll hear sheet metal shaking, canisters being rolled, and other studio tricks. Over the years compilations have been released containing demo versions of some of the songs that appeared on the album, and you can see what monied production techniques and ambition can do to transform tracks from raw and unpolished to soaring, epochal cacophonies.

As well as MacKenzie and Rankine, this line-up consisted of Michael Dempsey and John Murphy on bass and drums respectively. Both had been with the band for around two years, but were generally kept at the back of the bus as the duo hogged all the photo and interview opportunities that came their way. Canadian Martha Ladly, of new wave act Martha and the Muffins, was a prominent guest, supplying vocals and keyboards and her photogenic appearance ensured she shared some of the publicity.

The curious recording style extended to the track listing: ‘Party Fears Two’ and the other hit single ‘Club Country’ were kept to the second side. Listeners began their aural adventure with the three-minute instrumental ‘Arrogance Gave Him Up’. It ends with an instrumental too, which would become the single ‘18 Carat Love Affair’. These two instrumentals seem somewhat peculiar as it’s MacKenzie’s magnificent voice that is the money shot.

MacKenzie possessed a vocal range that defied description, ranging from deep to the soaring high-pitched tenor that was very individualistic. It was beguiling, enthralling and beautiful. Later, MacKenzie would develop his vocal talents, and bested Shirley Bassey when both sang ‘The Rhythm Divine’ for Yello in separate versions. Songs such as ‘Bap De La Bap’ and ‘Skipping’ are created around MacKenzie, whose ambiguous and oblique lyrics gave them a neo-gothic feel. Bravely, the band tackled ‘Gloomy Sunday’, a song with Hungarian roots and considered to contain a hex over those who sang it. That didn’t deter Billie Holiday, nor did it put off MacKenzie who gave it his own unique sound.

Several tracks engage the listener before we reach ‘Party Fears Two’, one of the most perfect songs ever, and ‘Club Country’ which seemingly condemns elitist structures if the chorus is to be read correctly: “Alive and kicking at the Country Club/ We're always sickening at the Country Club/ A drive from nowhere leaves you in the cold/ Refrigeration keeps you young I'm told.”  

They had their moment in the sun, and Sulk should’ve led to regular appearances on television and stadium gigs. But it all turned to custard rather quickly. Even before the year was out Rankine was gone, frustrated beyond belief that MacKenzie wouldn’t tour the album.

Rankine went out on his own, MacKenzie carried The Associates flag with Perhaps released in 1985. While it has some magnificent moments such as ‘Waiting For the Love Boat’ and ‘Those First Impressions’, it lacks Rankine’s instrumental genius and is for all intents and purposes a MacKenzie solo album.

Sulk, meanwhile, has been reissued several times over the years. As I write this I’m listening to the blue-coloured vinyl version. In 2016 an additional seven tracks were added to the CD version which included ‘18 Carat Love Affair’ and The Supremes’ ‘Love Hangover’ which combined became a medium-level hit in the UK and elsewhere. Most recently there was a special deluxe format with outtakes, Peel sessions, a live gig and even a disk containing five different versions of ‘Party Fears Two’. As The Associates rarely put a foot wrong, there is nothing here that is weak or profligate.