From: The Cassette Mythos, Autonomedia 1990
Among home-tapes, texts are rarely included and scores are virtually non-existent. Hence, texts are dealt with here in a limited fashion due to my difficulty in understanding them. Regarding scores, I transcribed all of the musical examples herein directly from the tapes; I did not intend to make, and I apologize for, any error, omission, oversight, or insensitivity I may have inadvertently committed during transcription.
The independent cassette underground is a loose collection of musical folk artists known as home tapers. The term home tapers refers to a large and varied group of everyday people who write, perform, record, package and distribute their music using cassette tapes. Some home tapers have made only one tape; others feature catalogs listing many titles. Some tapes are elaborate packages containing obviously well-thought out collections of songs our sounds; at the other extreme, a tape might contain ninety minutes of pure white noise treated with an echo machine. These cassettes are often submitted to radio stations and magazines that regularly air and review home tapes. The resulting exposure generally leads home tapers to discover, and perhaps to trade their tapes with, other home tapers. Every participant views the overall phenomenon from a unique and incomplete perspective. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that the only agreement regarding the number of home tapers in existence is that the number would be impossible to calculate.
Geographically, home tapers are everywhere. North America, Europe, Japan, and Australia contain the bulk of home tapers known to us here in America. However, the number of Asian, African, and South American contact addresses appearing in magazines is increasing. Although a language barrier often impedes the trading process (attempting foreign contact can charm the pants off the recipient), the cassette medium itself is universally standardized and in routine use in all parts of the world.
Three technological innovations in addition to cassettes are central to home taping. These are: inexpensive consumer-grade multi-track recording machines, Xerox machines, and the postal service. Multi-track recorders as low as $400 allow home tapers to perform some or all of the various instrumental and vocal parts on any given song or soundscape; Xerox machines, particularly those with reducing capability, are often used to fit a great deal of printed information inside copies of a finished cassette; and postal carriers form the primary circulatory system of the home tape underground. Along with cassettes themselves, these three other technologies allow a single individual to do everything necessary to become a known figure in the realm of home taping.
I personally became interested in the home tape underground in 1983. I traded a tape of my own music with several people whose tapes were reviewed in Op magazine. I continued making my own tapes and maintaining a relatively low profile, trading perhaps six times a year, reflecting new information sources (such as the Lonely Whistle Newsletter) which allowed more purposeful trading. In 1988 I began limited trading with Europe. Recently I have been collecting information about the home tape underground from other tapemakers to help round out my perspective. My intention is to describe this new folk art and discuss some selected representative examples of them music.
A comprehensive account of the home tape underground would be impossible for at least three reasons: (1) the realm is very dynamic, with a steady flow of new people joining and veterans retiring; (2) the majority of home tapes must be obtained directly from the artists – collecting them all would be impossible; and (3) many home tapes are simply no longer available. Hence, any report, including this one, is based on an incomplete picture and may overlook important elements of the phenomenon. However, by focusing on several popular artists in the field, this paper will at least give the reader a good general feel for the home tape underground.
I think of home tapes in two categories: (1) Songform – by traditional definition; most commonly strophic (sometimes through-composed and usually with text), and (2) experimental (without traditional form, i.e. soundmass). A tape may contain one style or the other, both styles, or grey areas between styles.
The next section of this paper will profile a handful of home tapers with emphasis on their songform works.
Don Campau is a unique personality. According to Lord Litter of Germany, “You’ll recognize his voice and guitar any time you hear them.” During the early part of the day Don is employed as a produce clerk at a Safeway supermarket in San Jose, California. This occupation is reflected in the title of one of his eighteen tapes, Mr. Full Time Vegetable. Don’s catalog of releases does not provide much clue regarding his wife Linda’s feelings about the underground cassette world, but their three children make occasional appearances on some of their father’s tapes. Nichole, age twelve, perhaps the world’s youngest home taper, released her first tape in 1909 (The Old Guard), and maintains the highest profile of the Campau offspring.
Don’s principal instrument is the guitar. He also uses keyboards, bass guitar, drum machine, real drums, and a variety of less conventional sound-producing devices. His songs are rarely complex and usually are built upon simple harmonic structures and feature either one, two, or three distinctive sections. On the other hand, his frequent use of unusual rhythmic figures and non-traditional melodic lines distinguishes his work.
In 1987, Don released his Pinata Party, a large (120 minute) collection of forty-two pieces occupying two cassettes. The following musical example, Until it Turns Red, comes from that tape. This piece is in 4/4 time (feel: snare on 2 and 4) and 112 bpm (beats per minute). The key is G mixolydian. The form is ABABA’BA. The A sections are built upon a twelve-note ostinato motive lasting two measures: Contraputnal voicing of the accompanying bass line supports the ostinato figure. The A sections are in three parts: (1) instrumental (introduction and transitional passages), (2) with first vocal structure (text: “Bend it and shake it but please don’t step on it”), and (3) with second vocal structure (text: “Do it until it turns red/Do it until it falls off, honey.”) The B section consists entirely of subtonic ninth chords and lasts four, eight, and twelve measures, respectively, in its three occurrences (text: “If I wanted a lesson I would have asked for it by name/What a lousy reminder how you love my pain”). The word “Ouch” falls on the pickup beat of the B section in each recurrence.
In the A section, the harmony alternates every two measures between major tonic and harmonic subtonic while the twelve-note ostenato repeats. The vocal is nearly spoken in a deadpan style (text: “Another suburbanite cracked they said, the TV news was blaring out loud. Mother and daughter are hacked they said, and the guy hit his dad with a hammer in the face. The guy jumped the fence but they caught him in a while”). The final A section begins with an unaccompanied eight-measure passage (Don harmonizes with himself such that the vocal parts are mirror images), and ends with a guitar solo. Stylistic elements of the guitar solo include (but are not limited to): (1) step-wise motion – liberal use of augmented seconds and occasional use of unexpected minor seconds, and (2) skip-wise motion – outlining both terrain and quintal (perfect and diminished) harmonic structures.
Don’s collected works are about 2/3 songform and 1/3 experimental. His experimental works include tape loops, vocals and instruments recorded backwards, portions of records (usually “ethnic” music from places like Asia and South America), and items from non-musical contexts (his piece “This Goes Boom” features the sounds of a chair being destroyed). One of his experimental techniques is “subtraction.” In this process, he will generally fill all four tracks on his tape machine with various sonic ingredients, then, while transferring the piece onto a regular cassette master, will vary the relative volume settings of the four channels, at times turning parts down entirely so that portions of the original tracks are “subtracted” completely.
Don is a central figure in the home tape underground. His work as a radio host on KKUP in Cupertino, California (his show, No Pigeonholes, features home tapers almost exclusively) and publisher of a corresponding newsletter will be discussed in the “Media Exposure” section of this essay. His highly regarded tape entitled Pen Pals will be the focus of a section addressing the concept of mail collaboration.
A second important artist is Heather Perkins, who lives in Eugene, Oregon. She seems to have two or three part-time low-paying jobs of restaurant/janitorial nature at any given moment. She is also a volunteer at a local cable TV station and accepts independent videos from anywhere for broadcast during her public access shift. Sometimes she socializes at the pool hall (“for the sound effects – pool is a silly game”). At home she maintains huge aquaria for her amphibious living companions which she refers to collectively as “Newt Disneyland.” Heather has been in a few performing musical ensembles (as guitarist/vocalist) which featured several of her compositions; most of these pieces are also present in her tape catalog of six releases. Heather has been enthusiastically reviewed for both her works in songform and her experimental output. Her collected works fall evenly into both categories. Her tapes often contain songs on one side and experimental compositions on the other (such as Why I Did It/Binky’s Revenge), or are released as a pair of tapes; one songs, the other experimental (as well Hamster Wheel and Steel Tribe).
Primarily a guitarist, Heather also plays bass guitar, saxophone, high quality synthesizers (courtesy of her local college campus), and an assortment of household objects. Her songform works generally feature two (but occasionally one or three) thematic sections. Frequently, contrasting sections modulate, although the harmonic structure of any given section is usually basic and straightforward, textured with sevenths and ninths. Her melodic lines are natural and the hew dissonances well placed. Most selections are rhythmically simple; a few feature unusual and/or mixed meters. Many varied strumming patterns are used on guitar.
Heather’s texts, when dealing with personal subjects, are usually substantial and direct, and stand out among home tapes. Some texts are log, rambling, stream-of-thought monologues that are nevertheless interesting for their absolute candor.
Heather released Burning Through in 1987; the selections range from lyrical, haunting pieces (such as “Once I Was”, “Burning Through” and “Save Me”) to harsh painful accounts of life (such as “Electroshock” and “Pink/Purple”).
Pink/Purple is in 12/8 time and the key is mixolydian. The ostinato pattern is present throughout both the A and B sections. These sections alternate, yielding four statements of each, corresponding to the four verses. The A section is eight measures of tonic and features light instrumentation (bass and drums stating the ostinato pattern) to accompany the verses. The instrumental B section introduces two new chords (major subtonic and minor supertonic – the presence of the static F in the bass, acting as a pedal tone, makes the new chords ninth and seventh chords, respectively). The B section is more thickly textured (distorted, high-gain electric guitar enters).
Tension generated by the unchanging bass note in the A section is released in the B section.
(Text, verse 1:
“Rage lives here, rage lives with me
Clenched fingers coming at my face.
You who spit the names at me
You’ll have to swallow your own poison.”
Verse 2:
“I wake up sweating
I wake up scared
But what will happen here?
Who’s gonna take the first step?
Who’s gonna hear me scream?”
Verse 3:
“No, don’t do this
Don’t make this my life
Animal on the run
Rip the bullet from the gun.”
Verse 4:
“Blood runs down the alley
Blood runs through the dream
I tell my friends to run like hell
I tell my kids to learn to burn.”
Verse 1 repeated.)
The last word in each verse comes in the final measure of the A section (downbeat for verse 2; third beat for all other verses) and is sustained into the B section.
Heather’s experimental work juxtaposes everyday sounds (bits of conversation, loose change, a toothbrush, TV, etc.) with musical instruments, often of unusual or distorted timbre. Tape loops, parts played backwards, and selective application of reverb are also used. A wide range of texture as well as intensity helps keep her three and a half experimental tapes from ever getting too monotonous. All have been favorably reviewed in the independent press.
Like Don Campau, Lord Litter has eighteen tapes in his catalog, has an alternative radio program for which he received hundreds of tapes yearly, and publishes his own newsletter. Though a resident of (West) Berlin, he writes and performs all of his song texts in English (which he prefers to his native tongue). No doubt this is partly responsible for his growing popularity in America. His fluency in his adopted language relates to his interest in English popular music from the early 1970s until the early 1980s (when his focus shifted to primarily American underground music). Lord Litter is currently studying Journalism in college.
In general, Lord Litter’s songs use straightforward harmonic structures, usually in one key but with sometimes shifting tonality to relative or parallel minor (or major) key areas. Most often, the structure is AB with two distinct themes that dovetail well. The instrumental texture of the tape is thick, with much doubling among acoustic, electric, and bass guitars, and various synthesizers. Vocal parts are also doubled regularly using contrasting voice types of which Lord Litter has many. His distinctive vocal timbre is an odd combination of American, English, German, and French accents.
One of Lord Litter’s most consistently good tapes is No More Rock ‘n’ Roll, from 1987. This tape contains a variety of styles and topics. However, a central theme is that of loss, appearing in several of the songs (“No More Rock ‘n’ Roll,” “Down There,” “Goodbye Charlie,” “I Had it All Before”).
“The Chair” is in AB form. The A section is spoken and features recurring instances of a dark, sinister laugh; the B section is sung. Musically, the A section is a variation of the basic twelve-bar blues pattern, modified by insertion of (borrowed) flat-six and flat-seven chords, and ending on the tonic rather than the customary dominant. This section also includes a four-bar tonic extension to yield a sixteen-bar pattern. The tonality is E major/minor; E major in the harmonic structure and E minor in the bass line. The B section is in E minor but implies G major (while avoiding the tonic).
The borrowed flat-six and –seven chords assume the structural feel of four and five chords, respectively.
Lord Litter is a very active home taper and trader, always interested in establishing new contacts. He is a good contact for Americans wishing to investigate the European tape underground, both for his own music and for the wealth of information he provides about other European artists.
Amy lives in Seattle, Washington, and works at the Muzak Corporation, although her own music is not aimed at an elevator or shopping mall audience. She seems influenced by American jazz artists of the fifties and sixties such as Coltrane, Monk, and Tyner. Her tapes are a unique and refreshing change from the rest of the home tape underground and it is therefore not surprising that she has become very popular in a relatively short time. Amy plays saxophone, guitar, bass, keyboards, and drums equally well and sings in a lyrical soprano.
Amy’s No Bones tape combines twenty selections that each exhibit three to six distinctive themes. Melodic material is of the double in close intervals (vocal and saxophone parts). Rhythmic patterns generally accent weak beats and a high degree of syncopation is evident. The texts range from commentary on the mundane aspects of daily living to overtly political themes.
A musical example from No Bones is entitled “I Wear Guns When I’m Dancing.” This piece is in strophic three-part rondo form, the ABCB pattern repeating. The text falls in the A and C section with descending close harmony in the melody line. The A section outlined here is based on a hybrid dorian-phrygian mode: like dorian with flat two or like Phrygian with raised six. The final measure imparts a lochrian flavor with the flat five. The text in the A section includes the line,
“I wear guns when I am dancing
I defend my country before I have fun.”
In the B section the tonality is in G minor. The C section modulates remotely to E mixolydian. The text in the C part includes the line
“Democracy lies in El Salvador
It lies in the hands of the People.”
The songs on No Bones consistently feature colorful and provocative texts and music.
Dino Lives in Los Angeles, California, and is a well-known and prolific home taper. Sound effects (and sound quality in general) in Dino’s tapes reflect obviously high standards, perhaps relating to his real job, which relates to sound effects technology in television and movies. Much of his work on cassette incorporates messages left on his answering machine; these pieces range from humorous (for example “Luncheon Date”) to embarrassingly personal (“I Have a Purpose”). Dino is an excellent guitarist (fast triplet passages abound) and keyboardist as well. He also plays banjo on several of his songs.
“Robot Margaret” (from the I Have a Purpose tape) is the most complex of the songform works contained in the four recent DiMuro tapes with which I am familiar. This is an example of through-composed songform, as opposed to the previous examples which were in strophic (verse/chorus) form. The score (a reduction – showing only principal melodic material) is presented in its entirety.
“Robot Margaret” is in ABA form (the text discusses the implications of a relationship with a life-sized rubber doll). The A section consists of a first theme (measures 1-12), a second theme (m 13-20), interlude (m 21-23) and a third theme with instrumental extension (m 24-31). It begins in E mixolydian, modulates freely, and ends in E major.
The B (development) section modulates often and has shifting accents and shifting time signatures. This section features some repetition (such as measures 74-77, which is meteric augmentation of measures 46-47), but presents mostly fresh material. The orchestration, done via a multiple timbre synth, ranges from sparse to very thick.
“Robot Margaret” features a great deal of musical variety in all aspects of texture with the curious exception of dynamics; the piece is essentially mezzoforte throughout. Dino has written many less complex songs (just as the tapers profiled earlier have written more intricate pieces than those used as musical examples). Overall, a wide range of styles keep Dino’s works interesting. For several years he has been a favorite on the No Pigeonholes radio show.
Aside from tapes made by individuals, two other important types of underground cassettes are mail collaborations and compilations. Mail collaboration involves one individual preparing an incomplete song, perhaps just the bass and drum part, and sending that tape to a second individual who then either completes the song or else adds more parts and sends it to a third individual. Ultimately, the “terminal” collaborator then releases the final version of the tape. Among the many and varied examples of mail collaboration, one stands out clearly: Don Campau’s Pen Pals. This tape was planned by sending invitations to about thirty home tapers asking for a -three to -five minute unfinished song. After several months, Don had enough material to work with, and spent several more months listening to his partial tracks. Then he fit a text to each contribution and sang the words (in some cases he added a little more music). The resulting tape contains seventeen songs; there is a variety in the music and continuity in the voice and text. Selections on this tape include “I Never Panicked” (music: Dino DiMuro), “Faces the Wall” (music: Al Perry), “Taming my Own Impulse (music: Ken Clinger), “After Awhile” (music: Charlie Mendoza), and “Happy Just To Be Here” (music: Peter Gullerud). Don admits that even though not a solo work, this is quite possibly his best overall tape. He also maintains that the contributors rose to the occasion beyond all expectations and furnished him with music of the highest quality.
The compilation is another important cassette construction technique. Given the daunting number of home tapers in the world, the compilation provides a useful sampling of many artists; the listener can then perhaps pursue the work of one or two of his/her favorites. In other words, a listener can be exposed to a wider range of artists while expending a smaller amount of time and effort. Tapes of this type can be compiled by a cassette label for promotion of their catalog, although frequently they are compiled by an individual to share some of their favorite music, such as the Refried Dreams tape issued by Darrel Draeger of Hermanos Guzanos. Local compilations are also popular; they attempt to compile artists and bands from a particular geographical area. Generally, this type of comp is restricted to a particular genre, such as in the examples: Connection Hardcore, Atlanta Avant Garde, or the curios Tokyo Reggae Clash, which features seven Japanese reggae bands.
The often elaborate nature of home taping raises questions about the cost of participation. In addition to the $400 multi-track, one needs some sort of dubbing deck (at least $100). Bland cassettes purchased in bulk (good quality chrome tape) average $100 per hundred. Prices of microphones and musical instruments vary widely (sharing of equipment is a common way to reduce costs).
Most home tapers will cheerfully send a copy of one of their products for an average price of $3-5. More popular artists may even recover a good portion of their initial outlay. However, according to an informal survey conducted by Robin James, no home tapers actually make money on their music. Participant gladly make the investment to have an opportunity to share their musical visions with anyone who is interested.
Exposure for home tapers comes from both individual and compilation tapes, but to an even greater extent through radio programs. Radio shows featuring home tapers can be found on college and community radio stations in increasing numbers, reflecting an increasing interest and participation in this art form. In most cases, a tape is submitted to a radio station blindly; apart from traveling to the location of the station and listening regularly, there is no way of knowing if a submission is ever transmitted. A minority of these stations provide some sort of feedback such as playlists or, to a much smaller extent, personal response. Don Campau’s bi-weekly program is a rare contact for most home tapers. He claims never to have received a tape that did not have some part suitable for airplay; indeed sending him a tape virtually guarantees that it will be played. Furthermore, Don publishes complete playlists and offers all of his radio shows on tape; there are about 140 shows on his list so far, and any of them can be obtained by sending him a blank tape.
For most home tapers, the majority of feedback they receive concerning their efforts comes from other home tapers with whom they trade. Finding suitable trading partners usually results from printed contact sources which range from full-time national periodicals to lists made by individuals on a one-time basis.
Op Magazine is generally recognized as the granddaddy of the major publications. Twenty-six issues of Op were published between 1981 and 1984 corresponding to the letters of the alphabet. That “Z” would be the final issue was stated at the outset. The magazine focused on many types of alternative music, one of which was home taping. As more and more home tapers became aware of its existence, the number of cassette reviews grew.
When Op folded in 1984, a portion of the staff was still interested in publishing an alternative music magazine. Unable to agree on an approach, the group split into two factions and two new magazines were created. Scott Becker now publishes Option magazine, which features better-known alternative musicians, record and CD reviews, and very little coverage of home tapers. This more commercial offshoot of Op has been published bi-monthly since its inception. On the other hand, David Ciaffardini founded Sound Choice magazine to maintain the national forum for underground musicians. Sound Choice issues feature an average of three hundred home tape reviews and an impressive number of contact addresses. However, Sound Choice is not very regular; arrival of the next issue is about as certain as the outcome of a coin toss. Successive issues of Sound Choice continue to display improvements; indeed this magazine is in a state of evolution that is encouraging to see. David maintains that bi-monthly issues will soon be a reality.
Numerous medium-sized publications list contacts and run review of home tapes (such as ND and Factsheet Five). Smaller than the major print media, they do not reach as wide an audience and their content is less comprehensive. However, they tend to run lengthier reviews.
For the home taper, the smallest publications are in some ways the best. While larger magazines cover many genres, the small ones can afford to focus on home taping alone. Don Campau publishes a yearly newsletter corresponding to his radio show. He estimates receiving about four hundred new tapes a year. Of these, his newsletter (Lonely Whistle Newsletter) lists contact addresses and capsule reviews of what he feels are the best hundred. Lord Litter publishes his newsletter (Out of the Blue) quarterly, listing his impressions of tapes (Litter receives about two hundred new ones per year). Out of the Blue is particularly interesting due to the wealth of German, English and other European home-taper reviews and addresses. Both Campau and Litter are motivated by a desire to see home tapers get in touch with each other.
Home tapers pursue their craft for perhaps as many reasons as there are home tapers. However, common to some extent is a dissatisfaction with commercially available music (Lord Litter comments, “I think normal music is going totally down hill at the moment”), and as belief that they can create something more substantial or at least more meaningful to themselves – and maybe a handful of appreciative others. Home tapers often keep a diary with a soundtrack, their medium being a forum for a statement of opinions, feelings, thoughts, and ideas. The results can be poignant, unbearable, or anywhere in between these extremes. As Robin James observes, “More art means more bad art,” but that does not stop him from continuing to search for the gems. Rare and valuable gems exist and can indeed make the investigating worthwhile.
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