{"id":337137,"date":"2025-08-12T01:01:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T01:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/337137\/"},"modified":"2025-08-12T01:01:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T01:01:13","slug":"the-tape-label-report-july-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/337137\/","title":{"rendered":"The Tape Label Report, July 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

TAPE LABEL REPORT<\/a><\/p>\n

The Tape Label Report, July 2025<\/p>\n

By <\/p>\n

Bandcamp Staff<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00b7
\n August 11, 2025<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Welcome to The Tape Label Report, where we introduce you to five cassette-focused labels you should know about, and highlight key releases from each.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe you should mention in the article that I\u2019m blind?\u201d suggests Jonas Torstensen,<\/a> founder of the Copenhagen-based cassette label Afvikling Kassetter. \u201cIt\u2019s fun to know, because it\u2019s an easy way of seeing which tapes I\u2019ve made myself. When I prepare tapes of other people\u2019s music, we do the artwork together. But for my music, I use a typewriter and make collages, and it\u2019s very crude. If the artwork looks weird, it\u2019s usually because I\u2019ve done it myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Torstensen is prolific. Aged 21, he\u2019s completed some 40 or 50 recordings across a string of pseudonyms, most prominently Franciska<\/a>, whose elegantly composed, ambient-leaning tape music has seen the light on labels including Discreet Music<\/a> and Warm Winters Ltd.<\/a> But Afvikling Kassetter is the endeavor that\u2019s closest to his heart, a true DIY enterprise that Torstensen operates from his apartment, dubbing music by himself and his friends onto recycled cassettes using a tape duplicator. \u201cI like the process,\u201d he enthuses. \u201cIt\u2019s not just sending some files to a pressing plant, it\u2019s really like a craft. To me, it\u2019s still the only right way to make tapes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Torstensen says his biggest influence is noise, citing labels like Satatuhatta<\/a> and New Forces,<\/a> as well as the output of Dan Johannson, aka Gothenburg harsh noise mainstay Sewer Election<\/a>. \u201cHis way of mixing and mastering music has been very influential on me,\u201d he explains. That said, Afvikling\u2019s output often tends towards the delicate and homemade, interspersing gentle acoustic instrumentation with field recordings and moments of near silence. The label has a busy year ahead; Torstensen says he is preparing some 20 or 30 recordings for release. Beyond that, he says, there\u2019s no specific ambition, save to keep that tape duplicator rolling. \u201cI have promised to keep each release in print until I reach retirement age,\u201d laughs Torstensen. \u201cWhich is, like, 50 years off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Release to Start With
\nVarious Artists
Taknemmeligheden om morgenen og l\u00e6ngslen om aftenen<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Released to commemorate Afvikling Kassetter\u2019s first birthday, Taknemmeligheden om morgenen og l\u00e6ngslen om aftenen (its title translates as \u201cGratitude in the morning and longing in the evening\u201d) is a useful entry point to Afvikling\u2019s distinctive sound world. \u201cI tried to do a release which is very representative of the label,\u201d explains Torstensen. \u201cAlthough it\u2019s actually been in the works for about three years, long before Afvikling started.\u201d<\/p>\n

Consisting of six extended compositions crammed onto a C90 cassette tape, the compilation veers between hazy, warped ambient music (v\u00e5rbrud<\/a>, Privasy) and crunchy noise (Dydens Bel\u00f8nning<\/a>, vitriol). But the highlight is \u201cbedre foruden,\u201d a track from Torstensen\u2019s soon-to-be-retired Franciska project: 20 minutes of wandering piano improvisations and nature sounds heard through a shimmering mirage of tape hiss.<\/p>\n

\u2013Louis Pattison<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In New York City, freaky experimentation and underground raving frequently blur. Lazar Bozic, who makes music as Solo Termite,<\/a> embodies this quality in his work curating Crude Tapes. The not-for-profit imprint and mix series formally launched in 2020, but has roots in 2011. During an early tour with no wave band Sediment Club<\/a> (Bozic has played bass in the group since high school), he was exposed to creative pieces of merchandise such as hand painted shirts and zines. Inspired, he crafted a handful of cryptic tracks with contact mics, guitar feedback, and a knockoff autoharp, which he dubbed a \u201cCrude Tape.\u201d The scrappy branding later resurfaced on a batch of Sediment Club tour cassettes. When Crude Tapes was formalized amid pandemic free time, the vision had already been established.<\/p>\n

The Crude Tapes discography spans degraded Americana, blistering ambient, and hazy house. Most releases come from longtime friends, but Bozic has discovered talent elsewhere\u2014a Bushwick block party, in the case of Sebastian Maria<\/a>. \u201cIn terms of what draws me to a particular band or album, it\u2019s difficult to say. It\u2019s a bit of a \u2018when you know, you know\u2019 situation,\u201d Bozic says. \u201cThe label is just an expression of my taste, for better or for worse. I feel lucky that I can put stuff out that is solely dictated by my follies.\u201d Bozic relishes the autonomy of running a label on his own, even describing the tedious thicket of emails and phone calls that shape each cassette as \u201ca blast.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bozic suspects that Crude Tapes is maturing past its unvarnished ethos. \u201cI don\u2019t want to necessarily only put out music that is \u2018crude,\u2019 even though I think the label is already operating beyond any limitations the name might impose,\u201d Bozic says. With his DJ alias Larry Termite<\/a> popping up on bills alongside Bookworms<\/a>, Hank Jackson<\/a>, and Ronan<\/a>, he is not wrong.<\/p>\n

Release to Start With
\nRose Club
DEMO<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Bozic describes Rose Club\u2019s DEMO as \u201ca unique take on Jersey club via hardware techno.\u201d This description is apt for a set of insistent DJ tools that seem to hover on the brink of collapse. Rose Club is a loose collective of producers, who Bozic connected with through Guy Weltchek (aka DJ Guy<\/a>) in the Upstate New York dance scene. DEMO was generated on a stark palette of machines, laid to tape by Jon Flores at the contemporary art space Second Ward<\/a> in the eerie town of Hudson. Muted 909s shuffle beneath distorted synths, seesawing between catharsis and disintegration. These four cuts are driving, but caked in a layer of sonic soot.<\/p>\n

\u2013Ted Davis<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

When Christian Rutz\u2019s aunt bought a summer house on the Danish island of Zealand, she found treasure in the garage. It wasn\u2019t cash or a long-lost masterpiece, but thousands and thousands of cassette tapes. The house was formerly owned by the head of a Copenhagen record label, and these tapes were demos from the 1980s and \u201890s that he asked her to destroy. Instead, she reached out to Christian. \u201cShe contacted me and asked if I wanted them, on the condition I would record over what was on them. That lucky break\u2014or coincidence, or whatever you want to call it\u2014gave us enough cassettes to keep a label running for years,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The timing was perfect: Rutz had been planning a new endeavor with his friend, Vladimir Mihajlovic. They decided to turn Rutz\u2019s solo project, Fallen Metropolis, into an artist collective. What is the difference between an artist collective and a traditional label? \u201cWe became a large group of friends contributing music, paintings, photography, graphic design, etc., all just for the joy of it. There was never a plan to make money off each other. It was purely about doing what we loved,\u201d says Rutz. \u201cAnother key factor was our growing frustration with releasing music on bigger labels. We wanted something of our own, even if it meant fewer gigs. We wanted to work for ourselves\u2014not for others anymore. A classic artist rebellion.\u201d<\/p>\n

With this independence, Fallen Metropolis is able to create their own community without limits on genre or geography. Some artists, like Alvaro Suarez<\/a> and Lauge<\/a>, are close friends from Copenhagen, while others, like KAGAMI Smile<\/a>, are internet acquaintances. But wherever each musician may be, they are all full members of the collective. \u201cJust think about what might\u2019ve been overlooked without the space our label provides: breakbeats from Tbilisi, noise from Tokyo, drones from Malm\u00f6, IDM from Normandy, an experimental rock band from the Midwest. Unique projects like these likely never would\u2019ve been released otherwise,\u201d Rutz says.<\/p>\n

Fallen Metropolis cassettes are released in small runs with hand-made covers, created by Rutz himself with a Dymo label maker and acrylic paint. This means that each tape is unique, a physical representation of the label\u2019s DIY method and independent spirit. Fallen Metropolis\u2019s discography now features dozens of releases, but they\u2019re still working through the windfall from that summer house garage\u2014slowly and methodically, with no end in sight.<\/p>\n

Release to Start With
\nLauge, Alvaro Suarez, Fallen Metropolis
May 7 \u2013 Live Improvisations<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Alvaro Suarez and Lauge are two of Fallen Metropolis\u2019s most prolific artists, and Rutz points to this early release as his favorite of their contributions. May 7 is a set of live improvisations with Lauge on synth and piano, Suarez on violin, and Rutz on tape loops and drums. Without the title, you\u2019d never know it was improvised: the trio glides along frictionlessly, crafting a masterful mix of ambient and downtempo. Its dubby, patient pacing relies at least as much on the musicians\u2019 understanding of each other as of their respective instruments, an illustration of how tight-knit they are as a singularly focused collective.<\/p>\n

\u2013Matthew Blackwell<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Vaporwave is by definition an ephemeral genre, but this is complicated by the existence of Paris-based vaporwave label Global Pattern. That\u2019s because label founder Tim Six<\/a> is Crimean, and had to flee when Russia invaded his country. In this context, the stereotypical internet native aesthetic takes a backseat to real life turmoil, imbuing Global Pattern\u2019s releases with a wistful sense of hope. Says Six: \u201c[What Global Pattern] is known for in the scene is being home for solarpunk music, which is kind of meta-genre\u2014it can be really different sounding but it has to be futuristic, sunny and hopeful; an anti-dystopian alternative to the dystopian cyberpunk reality we\u2019re living in already.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Six, cassettes are all about discovery and connection in a deeply polarized world: \u201cNo stealing platform or algorithm can emulate that\u2014no ads, no internet, no screens, no subscription plan.\u201d They\u2019re a medium by which to ground yourself, something that Global Pattern\u2019s music does all too well.<\/p>\n

Release to Start With
\nhyperborea32x
midlife crisis<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Keeping it Ukrainian, one of Global Pattern\u2019s marquee releases is hyperborea32x<\/a>\u2019s midlife crisis. It\u2019s an intense cornucopia of net-inspired genres\u2013vintage vapor samples; schizophrenic gabber and breakcore; and the folk stylings of juke and footwork. But what makes it so significant is that hyperborea32x himself is currently on the frontlines of the Russo-Ukrainian War, having been deployed in April. That dichotomy is sobering, further echoing how a scene built on mystique and intrigue can be shattered by uncontrollable, unimaginable horrors. Fingers crossed he\u2019s safe and will be able to make more music soon.<\/p>\n

\u2013Eli Schoop<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Some record labels are simply that: organizations created expressly to release music. Others, like Fleure Tapes, aspire to something more. According to the Swedish outfit\u2019s Bandcamp page, it doubles as a \u201cmicro cosmic holistic head space continuum collective.\u201d<\/p>\n

What does this trippy procession of words mean? Partly, explains founder Lee Boyd, it hints at Fleure\u2019s musical lineage, drawing a freewheeling line between the label, \u201860s space rock, the Fluxus movement, and even Pauline Oliveros\u2019s Deep Listening practice. It\u2019s also indicative of the community ethos embodied by the roster of returning artists whom Boyd also considers friends. Finally, the text suggests a wide-eyed, psychedelic outlook shared by the label and its releases. This is \u201cmusic to float on,\u201d enthuses Boyd, \u201cmusic to create a strong head buzz.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boyd, who makes drone music under the alias cloudsound<\/a>, grew up listening to tapes in Iowa in the 1980s. He enjoyed the reel-to-reel output of artists like Birchville Cat Motel<\/a> in the \u201890s before discovering labels like Night People<\/a> a few years later. The latter, especially, upheld the tape tradition while emphasizing a \u201cstellar hand-printed art aesthetic.\u201d Aspiring label owner Boyd, who sees himself as a \u201cbit of a Luddite,\u201d was daunted by the digital design and layout aspect of cassette production, but he enlisted friend and graphic designer Leo Romanick to assist. Thus Fleure was born, going on to release gorgeous lo-fi guitar music, weirdo psych-rock, and meditative folktronica. The array of musical styles is deliberate. \u201cInclusivity in sonic diversity,\u201d asserts Boyd.<\/p>\n

Every release is accompanied by a fragment of crystalline text, almost like a tone poem. For G\u00fcnter Schlienz<\/a>\u2019s 2024 album of pastoral kosmische, Weltraumfahrt Heute<\/a>, the Boyd wrote, \u201cashram effervesce con tantum eerily under astral blanket peeking on yon pioneers high water mark.\u201d Nonsense or profound? Maybe a bit of both. Boyd sees these words as creating \u201cintangible associations,\u201d whisking listeners away on an \u201copen ride\u201d of synonyms rather than defining what their experience should be.<\/p>\n

Despite the label\u2019s heady, esoteric vibe, the tape format brings it back down to earth. While others download MP3s and stream on digital platforms, Boyd is \u201cthrift store crawling for that extra spare tape deck.\u201d His commitment is born from love: the feel of a tape \u201cfitting in your palm,\u201d the charm of \u201crattling inner reels\u201d and, above all, the \u201cwarm, round audio.\u201d<\/p>\n

Release to Start With
\nEffective Dreaming
Dream Catalogue Vol. 1<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

On Dream Catalogue Vol.1, Scottish artist Iain Ross, working under the alias Effective Dreaming, conjures an uncanny aural realm from spiraling melodies, decaying drones, and faint, distorted hiss\u2014it sounds a little like Ross has dropped a microphone in the Zone from Tarkovsky\u2019s movie Stalker<\/a> (1979). This music is eerie and unsettling for the most part with occasional moments of striking, iridescent prettiness. Flutes arrive midway through side two, evoking the rugged folk music of the musician\u2019s home, followed by gleaming synth lines which sparkle and shimmer like dappled sunlight through birch tree leaves. Like all Fleure releases, the cosmic perspective is pronounced. Fitting, then, that this bewitching album was released on the summer solstice.<\/p>\n

\u2013Lewis Gordon<\/p>\n