From: The Cassette Mythos, Autonomedia 1990
When the Lost Music Network first started publishing Op in 1979, an independent cassette-only release was an anomaly. Even commercially-produced cassettes with bonus tracks were unusual. It wasn't until 1982 or so that we started getting quite a few.
Formerly, I had made the decision to review all recordings, regardless of their format or classification, in one large section. This, I felt, was in keeping with Op's philosophy that all genres and presentations have equal validity and deserve equal treatment (this at a time when the LP was king). However, the first indy cassette-only releases were clearly a breed apart; their producers were as delighted with the cassette format as they were with the music. Graham Ingels, a Lost Music Network board member, was intrigued by the cassette-only phenomenon, and asked to begin a cassette-only column called "Castanets," which was the first column I'm aware of that treated cassettes as artistic products, not merely demos for artists hoping to snag recording contracts. We were swamped with cassettes almost immediately.
Reaction was mixed. Some cassette producers used Castanets as a networking tool and felt as if they were at the forefront of a new international movement. Many long-lasting contacts were made. Others specifically asked to be included in the reviews section rather than receive the type of short, descriptive, generally uncritical mentions that Ingels and his compatriots favored for Castanets. Some feared that producers of cassette-only releases wouldn't be taken seriously. For my part, I saw it as an overdue acknowledgement of the revolution in home recording. It was the first time a musician in Des Moines had the opportunity to record her music in her basement, make her own dubs, package them in any way she wished (usually using the Qwik-Print down the street for printing the cover art), get it mentioned in an international magazine, and receive inquiries from Perth, Australia or Goteberg, Sweden. It was exciting to be a part of it.
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