Mick's Tape

Cassetteboy's Mick's Tape is an album created by cutting up audio clips with the rigorously bootlegged edit program Sound Forge. The clips sound like they've been pulled from thrift store records and BBC documentaries. The humor stays nicely juvenile and is consistent with the weeded hip-hop tracks that break up the comedy. Mick's Tape is constructed in the same way as the Phat Stack tapes that have floated around on the West Coast of the U.S. Cassetteboy is less sinister and on the whole less adventurous. On the first Phat Stack tape, Dirty Beats and Funky Sex, he let the comedy, cut-ups, and insanity flow right through the more music-oriented tracks. Mick's Tape isn't as much of a collage but is equal in its devotion to weird audio clips. The best come from a social anxiety self-help tape, a golf lesson, and a discussion about the London Underground. Mick's Tape is a great example of cut-ups and the power that Sound Forge puts in the hands of the average person. No record, radio clip, advertisement, or conversation is safe from a cut-up treatment. Cassetteboy has taken this kind of mixing out of the car stereo cassette deck and passed it on to a larger audience. ~ Matt Whalley