Cassette tapes and the avant-garde are what I call “play cousins.” They’re not necessarily related, but they work well together and have a lot in common. I use “avant-garde” here as a catch-all for experimental music, contemporary classical, odd films, and forward-thinking literature. I’m thinking of the new and unusual, a testing ground for ideas that might shift our perspective and understanding of the human experience if broadcast widely. At first glance, though, this stuff isn’t for everyone—I consider myself adventurous, and even I have moments when the voice of a skeptical geezer from the old neighborhood pops into my brain and says, “What the hell is this shit?”
Zach Moore’s Galloping Through a Wormhole arrives in a colorful cover from artist Geena Berry that draws you to Moore’s equally colorful compositions. Andrew Tham’s Tutorial Music, an experiment for spoken word and synthesizer, has packaging designed by artist and writer Miden Wood to resemble the kind of homemade language cassettes you might find at a garage sale, in keeping with Tham’s concept.
Tutorial Music by Andrew Tham
