To mark the recent launch of Vice/Noisey’s new music platform ‘You Need To Hear This’ – in association with audio pioneer Philips – those lovely music fanatics at YNTHT HQ have made a trilogy of short films exploring the recent renaissance in vinyl, tape and radio.
The first episode (shown above), features Radio 1 DJ Jen Long (CEO of tape-only label Kissability) talking passionately about an ongoing love of cassette culture, plus Brooklynite Brian Shimkovitz and his blog Awesome Tapes from Africa, where he shares rare cassettes collected from across the African continent.
The short documentary has given us a healthy amount of inspiration to dwell upon with regards to our own label ventures (watch this space very closely!) . Cassettes have always had a deeper felt aesthetic than CD’s, simply because you can physically visualise the music moving across one end of the reel to the other. Not only that, the medium of cassettes still represents the giant shift in power whereby people began to self-publish mixtapes and share music with whoever they wanted. This resurgence in tapes does also point towards a disillusion with CD’s and what they have come to represent within the music industry in the last few decades. Nicolas Jaar – brainchild behind the genius Prism concept- commented that CD’s “exist only because they are cheap, profitable and serve the needs of a capitalist system that treats music as a commodity “. We can’t help but agree with his assertions. Read the full Nicolas Jaar article here: www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/mar/24/nicolas-jaar-prism
Well that’s plenty to think about whilst you’re consuming your music. Hop over to You Need To Hear This right now to find more of these videos and check out Philips new line of headphones that have launched alongside the new music platform – that’s how we’re consuming our music right now!
