Welcome to a scrapbook of found tape sounds documented on a blog from back in the 2010s called Tape Findings: Found Home Recordings, And Other Cassette Deck Oddities. Here comes a mish mash of American tape junk from the late-20th century, including shopping mall karaoke booth recordings, kids playing with their tape decks, rambling raps, salesmen, voicemail recordings – it’s all there. What a strange time. Just like today. There’s real beauty in this kind of warped analogue self-documentation; the ancestor to today’s crystalline selfies. Both times seem to scream a hope and a desire simply to be seen, heard, and acknowledged.

Huge credits to the makers of the decade-old blog

email // tristan@spools-out.com
tweet // @SplsOut

• High school choir with tape sounds, St. Charles, IL, 1984
• 2001: A Space Odyssey & Star Wars, Home Organ Medley
• Demo tape for Chicago band, Empty Pockets, 1990s
• Answering machine messages, various, 1980s/90s
• Dora & Michele,  attempting an a cappella version of Jody Watley’s 1987 dancepop hit “Looking For A New Love”
• The Warrens Sing – The Impossible Dream
• Unknown brothers – “Alien”/”Prima Donna”/”Cold Summer Nights”/”Only Newborn”
• Unknown women’s singing choir/kazoo orchestra – “April Showers”/”Singing in the Rain”/”Raindrops Keep Falling”/”Pennies from Heaven”
• Aunt Bill’s music for synthesizer & IBM computer – Untitled original tune / “Axel F (Theme from Beverly Hills Cop)”
• Unknown kid, rapping & sound effects
• Jill, Becky, Katie in a shopping mall karaoke booth – “I’m all Out of Love”