The wonderful world of mixtapes

Hey all.

Sorry my posts here are so periodic. I have been working my tail end off on new Tarotplane music so its dominated my free time and brain space. Zikzak is a bit like a mood ring for me. If i dont post it means I’m either kinda despondent with the state of things (January onwards has been kinda brutal) or I’m just grooving along in my little sonic world.

So anyhow…

I have been kinda exploring my analog side of late and its led me to picking up a nice 70’s era Tandberg tape deck. You can see it as part of my little analog workstation in my studio

I dont buy a lot of physical media but the things i have been picking up are mixtapes. The ones i have gotten recently are the fantastic series of mixes called “Tabi Tapes” put out by the All Night Flight record shop in Stockport UK

Tabi Tapes

What i value about them is the point of view and special occasion that putting a mix on physical tape brings. I feel like a great mixtape is sort of like getting dressed up to so somewhere special. Time, energy & effort has been likely put towards making this artifact.

To my mind, the actual mixtape differs from the tons of mixes you see on NTS, Dublab, ect a lot of the time because of the feeling of permanence an actual object rather than simply a mix. I think you can think of it more as an artistic project. An opportunity to create an aesthetic.

I think a lot of us (and older folks like myself) have been thinking about the world pre streaming and how we can reclaim some of the things that make music special and more valued. To me, the mixtape is a great start and i hope its something that we see more and more of. For my part, i am going to start making tapes just for my own listening pleasure. I feel like committing it to actual tape will make me really pay attention to the little details. The idea too of making my own covers, ect really just makes me feel; good to think about and i think we all need more of that in this world now.

Anyhow, here are some other that i think are worth checking out…

Midnight Vultures

This Belgian label is dedicated to mixtapes only. You can download or purchase the physical. It has showcased a few of my favorite selector/dj’s in the 11x volumes they have done so far. This one below i quite like. They also have several by my friend McBain who does just fantastic mixes

Michael Tanner : Cantus Orbis (Mixtape)

This originally came out on Tabi Tapes but Michael offered this on his Bandcamp page and im very glad he did. This is a special one where he goes deep into his vast collection of early music and turns out a tape thats a truly special listening experience

Weeding

This Dublin based DJ crew has (had) a show on Dublin Digital Radio and they also do a pretty fantastic mix series.

https://listen.dublindigitalradio.com/resident/weeding

Here is a description of the featured one above..

One third of the minds behind prescient Catalan label Urpa I Musell, im has dug deep into their roots with cuts from old shellac transferred to vinyl, Latin American and self-released records, flexi-disc, lathe-cuts, and cassettes making up this mixtape.

Through Catalan folk ballads, library music, Latin AOR, Occitan esoterica and spoken word buried by tape hiss and dissonance, "Aodhán" weaves a story about personal history and collective memory through the free association of sounds.

So i hope this gets you motivated to explore this world and if you feel like sharing ones you have gotten that you want to tell people about, please feel free in the comments