Hi, Luke here. Iâm the Editor of International Tapes. Welcome to our new digital home.
If you are thinking something like, âYes, Iâm glad youâre back!â then thanks, itâs good to be here. If youâre wondering, âWait, who the hell are you?â or âWhere the hell have you been?â then I have answers for you below.
After 4 years of writing about found tapes, albums, videos, and tracks, weâre going to focus on continuing our mixtape series and our weekly show on Newtown Radio, featuring co-host Tim Hodgin and very special guests. As always, weâre going to keep our ears and energies focused on bringing you the out of the way, unexpected and the pop/not so pop sounds we think are important.
Want to make us a mix? Want us to play your music on the show? Want to stop by Newtown Radio if youâre in Brooklyn? Email us at internationaltapescontact [at] gmail.com, please. Talk soon! Onwards!
It wouldnât be appropriate to open a new chapter without examining the old one. International Tapes has had the privilege of supporting a huge, diverse array of artists and bands from around the world. That gets mentioned first, because thatâs what weâve always tried to put first.Â
In the course of that, weâve evolved what we do, over and over. When I joined International Tapes as a contributor, founder Ric Leichtung was starting to look beyond the found bodega cassettes, obscure YouTube finds, and artist mixtapes that cast Intl as a âblog for lost music,â along the lines of Awesome Tapes from Africa, Arawa.fm (RIP) or the early days of the WFMU blog. Pretty soon after, we started doing full length cassette reviews and found ourselves part of the loose community of artists and labels that would eventually spark the current cassette revival. From there, we quickly turned into track reviews, and then things got crazy. More on that later.
In the course of editing and writing for the blog, Iâve also had the chance to involve a lot of really talented people as contributors. Editing their work was a huge privilege, and they made it easier and more fun than it had any right to be. If International Tapes has been successful as a platform for discovery, sharing, and learning, then the credit for that, goes largely to them. Sharing music and ideas with these smart people has been, and is, one of my favorite things.
You canât talk about Intl Tapes, without mentioning the blogging collectives weâve been a part of. When we joined Altered Zones (RIP) we were definitely one of the smallest players involved. It seemed like we finally had a stage to match our ambition, and it was a lot of fun. Perhaps most importantly, that planted the seeds for what would become AdHoc, which is still going strong online and IRL. Enjoy AdHoc regularly, please.
In closing: a little advice for your digital life
If you care about something, the best thing you can do is to invest time in it.
Listen to what you want. Trends are fabrications and scenes die quicker than you can name them.
Stay in touch with people. At a minimum, email makes it really easy.
Pick a good hosting service and stick with it.
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