Cassette culture gets a remix
Mix tape culture was basically a boot in the backside for the alternative counterculture in the ’80s. Despite the record industry’s comical Home Taping is Killing Music campaign, mix tapes were the heart of so much of the decade’s music. Their importance is only just being registered. Thurston Moore’s written a great coffee table book about them, even. But without them the international noise scenes would never have happened, people traded tapes and then sponsored each other for tours. Hip hop, house, jungle, all these were definitely built around the mixtape. It’s something that feels a bit lost in this new decade of CD mixes, iTunes playlists and MP3 downloads.
Anyway a cat called Richcolour is working on getting his mixtape collection online. Mastermix.org is a collection of hip hop, house and soul mixtapes on MP3 for download, mostly sourced from mid ’80s London pirate stations. And everything from Orlando Voorn to Troublefunk and Jazzy Jeff to Double Dee & Steinski’s classic Lessons.
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