This week, London-based artist Beachers (aka Daryl Worthington) presents a collage built from a day trip to the Kent coastal town of Whitstable earlier this month. It is called Asimov in Whitstable. It is entirely built from “either second hand tapes bought on that day, or field recordings taken on a cassette Dictaphone.”

Beachers recently released a tape of arpeggios and synth drone titled Language Shapes the View.  Full explanation of this show below…

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Asimov in Whitstable

“The radio show is all sourced from a day in Whitstable on 16th March – either second hand tapes bought on that day, or field recordings taken on a cassette Dictaphone.

Audio from the cassettes was then cut up and collaged using a tape player, live sampling on an SP-404, and computer manipulation.

In general, the field recording elements have all been sequenced together in chronological order – creating a document of the day – from the train journey, to lunch in a café, to wondering along the beach. Certain elements have been deliberately magnified – train announcements instructing passengers to report suspicious behaviour, or the train door closing alarm, to stress the frequency and repetition of such sounds.

Second hand tapes were bought largely based on the basis of their cover. They have sometimes been sampled, manipulated and mashed together, and sometimes just left to play uninterrupted. As someone born and raised in a British seaside town, it seems that the interruptions to the field recordings by these weird artefacts captures well the sense of bleak kitsch and faded glamour these towns often have, especially when it’s cold, wet and windy.

The thing that seems to inadvertently tie these things together (and was the first part of the mix I recorded) is extracts from an Asimov audio book. (I got a discount on this, the guy in the tape shop said I deserved it as ‘you have to be brave to buy Asimov’). On the one hand, Asimov’s writing is concerned with heavy sci-fi and philosophical themes – the Three Laws of Robotics, individualism etc. At the same time, his work was being presented here on an archaic medium – a BBC commissioned audiobook on cassette.”

— Daryl Worthington, aka Beachers

Outro music: Nicholas Langley & Dark Half – Siege (Spun Out Sounds)