Fluorescence. Cassette Works 1987-1992

Artists

Album Info

Release Date: 2019-09-28

Label: Personal Soundtracks

This collection of industrial and experimental noise tracks was recorded in various London bedrooms between 1987 and 1992 on a 4 track Portastudio. Remastered from the original cassette mixdown masters. The only effects used was a loaned AKAI reel-to-reel which was converted to produce tape echo. This, the use of physical magnetic tape loops and mastering onto cassette for ease of duplication, account for the ambient surface hiss on these tracks.

This is a compilation of the experiments from those sets that have survived the test of time.

Instrumentation is basic – borrowed guitars and amplifiers, metal percussion and discarded drums, with the odd cheap keyboard thrown into the mix. These works are pre- digital sampling so tape loops were often used to create the rhythms.

The voices and ambience largely come from intercepted shortwave radio recordings, tuned into late at night. This was pre-Internet. The intercepted overseas radio broadcasts, often from the US, were awash with the kind of conspiracy theories that are now part of the lifeblood of the World Wide Web.

The selections come from the three separate cassette-only releases: Incandescence (1990), Flex (1991), and Receiver Generation (1992), all released originally on the Chainsaw Cassettes label.