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PODCAST

Cassette Culture

East Coast Studio

The stories of the global underground movement that shaped experimental music and culture, told by the artists that were there… For two decades during the "80"s and "90"s, the international mail system fostered a network of underground artists, exchanging cassette tapes of music and homemade artwork – all under the radar of mainstream media. Taking the DIY message of Punk as a jumping off point, we travel through the network to find the creators of the fanzines, the music, the labels

music music history

All Episodes

27:36

Deleted Records & The Instant Automatons

Cassette Culture ·

2025/11/27

Underneath the safety pins, television expletives and bondage trousers that came with Punk in 1977, there was a coded message for those ready to hear it. Resolutely independent, the Instant Automatons and their label Deleted Records tuned in from the North of England and got that message of DIY independence, creativity and confidence that followed "Here's Three Chords, Now Form A Band". We trace the birth of the UK cassette underground - from isolated bedrooms to West London squats, from hand-dubbed

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4:37

Season 2 - DIY Revolution: Owning The Means Of...

Cassette Culture ·

2025/11/09

The artists who made the template - In Season 2 we’re delving into the very origins of the underground cassette music scene from the late 70s and early 80s, featuring insights from key musicians who revolutionised independent music production. "We didn't think much of the establishment and capitalism, instead of demonstrating against it, we thought we'd create another world which existed outside of it." Jonathan Barnett of Fuck Off Records encapsulates the revolutionary mindset of the

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24:13

Checkpoint Staalplaat: Revisiting Radical Sound, with...

Cassette Culture ·

2025/08/28

From vinyl to cassettes and the occasional... flexi-postcard! Geert-Jan Hobijn reflects on Staalplaat’s origins as a cassette label, and some current releases. In this special interim episode of Cassette Culture, Martin Franklin and Jerry Kranitz speak with Geert-Jan Hobijn, the legendary founder of Staalplaat - the experimental music label that began in an Amsterdam squat in 1982 and went on to define an era of radical sound and design. We focus on some current activities publishing

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25:39

Copy This Mix

Cassette Culture ·

2025/08/08

Music mix by Joshua James Amberson drawing on cassette releases reviewed in issue #3 of the Copy This Cassette zine. Joshua is publisher of the Basic Paper Airplane zine, and curator of the Antiquated Future store/distro and label. He is based in Portland, Oregon, USA.Theme music "Hesatative" Jack Hertz VIDEOYou can find video of some of the fanzines and cassette releases in this episode on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@CassetteCulturePodcast LINKSJoshua James Amberson/Antiquated

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28:56

Inside the Zine: Copy This Cassette with Blake Werts

Cassette Culture ·

2025/07/24

From the worlds of mini-comix to independent music, D. Blake Werts is the creative force behind the fanzine, Copy This Cassette. Martin Franklin and co-host Jerry Kranitz sit down with Blake to share the surprising story of how he discovered cassette culture only a few years ago, and how that discovery inspired him to launch a new publication devoted entirely to underground cassette releases. He explains the philosophy behind Copy This Cassette, including its tactile, analogue-first ethos and the

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26:44

Underground Goes Overground: Freakbeat, & Planet Dog

Cassette Culture ·

2025/06/13

3D glasses at the ready, we speak with Richard Allen, editor of psychedelic magazine Freakbeat, founder of Delerium Records, and Michael Dog of Club Dog, Megadog and Planet Dog Records. Together, they helped define an era of fanzines, home-recorded cassettes, underground parties, and independent music distribution. This episode, we’re hearing the inside story of a telephone call to Timothy Leary, the artists behind Freakbeat’s unique 3d page design, Club Dog’s rare live cassette

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33:11

Third Mind, Fourth Dimension

Cassette Culture ·

2025/05/29

Armed with fanzines, cassette tapes, and a fierce DIY spirit - two teenagers from Herne Bay helped shape the UK’s underground music scene. In this episode, host Martin Franklin traces the journey of Gary Levermore, founder of Third Mind Records, and Richard “Richo” Johnson, the force behind Grim Humour fanzine and Fourth Dimension Records. From their early days frequenting a local record shop to trading zines and music through the post, their story captures the energy of a

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27:07

Post-Punk Publishing, with Attrition and Adventures...

Cassette Culture ·

2025/04/20

Tales of handmade 'zines and the cassette underground with two key figures: Martin Bowes of the electronic-industrial band Attrition, and Alan Rider of the Adventures In Reality label and fanzine. We trace their trajectory from the early days, as local Coventry fanzines "Alternative Sounds" and “Adventures In Reality” evolve into bands and cassette labels and build grassroots distribution networks that span the World. Bowes and Rider reflect on how out-of-hours Art College facilities,

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25:04

Wild Planet 1983: The World Gets Weirder

Cassette Culture ·

2025/04/04

From the provocative performances of Throbbing Gristle at the Lyceum to Einstürzende Neubauten's infamous stage-demolishing concert at the ICA, this episode captures the moment when musical boundaries were not just pushed, but completely obliterated. The Wild Planet column, written by Dave Henderson started as a cut-out-and-keep centre feature in Sounds, the UK’s biggest music weekly, but soon became a focus for the new breed of cassette artists and labels across Europe. Guitars were OUT,

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15:28

Erotic Art, CDr's and a Mystery Device from Hybryds

Cassette Culture ·

2025/03/27

Amazing artworks, CDr's and a mystery device. The full unboxing experience of the package sent to us from Belgium by Sandy from the Hybryds. This is the Bonus version of the recordings which opened Episode 8 "Universe Of The Wyrd: The Cold Spring Story" - just for our curious listeners who want to hear more. Episode contains these tracks from CD:"Euthanasia" Rabbits Wear Boots, No Style No Rules"Why Are you Hear?" Rabbits Wear Boots, Trans Human Distopia (USB key)"Once I Dreamed" In The Wake Of The

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27:58

Universe Of The Wyrd: The Cold Spring Story

Cassette Culture ·

2025/03/18

At the forefront of Industrial and dark electronic music since the 1980s, Cold Spring Records emerged from the cassette underground to become a significant independent record label. We unpack the story of label founder Justin Mitchell, an underground music dot connector who started in the UK tape trading and mail art networks, and working within the influential Temple Of Psychic Youth. Cold Spring stayed close to it’s underground ethos to become a respected purveyor of the strange and the

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21:28

Contact-Exchange-Document: The Story of ND

Cassette Culture ·

2025/03/04

DIY passion, artistic discovery, and the power of community. This is a story of the kind friendly networking that typified the cassette scene and it shines through in this episode. We dive into the fascinating history of the ND fanzine and influential label, founded by Daniel Plunkett in Austin, Texas. ND became a hub for the international mail art and cassette culture scenes, connecting artists from around the world through its fanzine, events, cassette, vinyl and CD releases. Through his early

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19:36

Evolution of Noise: The 40 Year Journey of Satori

Cassette Culture ·

2025/02/18

With pile of scrap metal and a disused railway tunnel nearby, unemployed youths Dave Kirby and Rob Maycock began recording sounds that they’d use as material for their Throbbing Gristle-inspired noise project, Psychopath. Forty years later, on the eve of his international tour we speak with Dave about his early cassette scene releases and continued artistic evolution in Satori. Touching on his motivations, artistic confidence… and his sample library of road drill sounds. His early

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10:57

The British Library Calls

Cassette Culture ·

2025/02/09

We share the news of the preservation of the Cassette Culture podcast by the British Library and talk about some upcoming interviews. Coming Next: Psychedelia in the Home Counties with Richard Allen of Delerium Records, and Texas' ND fanzine and label with Daniel Plunkett, plus the evolution of experimental/Industrial music with Davie Kirby of Satori. Our new "Cassette Culture" stickers get unboxed ready for distribution to anywhere we can get them. Hosted by Martin Franklin & Hudson Graham

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25:10

Underground 'Zines And The Hunt For Lost Music

Cassette Culture ·

2025/01/09

The Vital fanzine evolved from hand typed, xeroxed pages to pioneering online distribution, and connected artists from the USA and Europe. We dive into an interview with Frans de Waard, creator of the Dutch fanzine Vital and the Korm Plastics label to talk about his journey of collaboration in the underground cassette scene. Covering his early zine projects like Nul Nul, growing his label network, work with renowned record store and experimental music label, Staalplaat, and steps into authoring

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26:59

The Package From Steve Arrives

Cassette Culture ·

2024/12/28

Unboxing a Cassette Time Capsule sent to us from Steve Gears in the UK. We find a treasure trove of rare cassette culture artifacts from the 1980s and 90s. From handmade fanzines and photocopied flyers to quirky cassette releases, this episode transports you back to the DIY underground music scene of the pre-digital era. Martin and Hudson unpack the goodies sent from The Happy Citizen's Steve Gears in Manchester UK and talk through the flyers, tapes and letters inside this amazing time capsule. This

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25:03

Tape to Tape Tête-à-Tête: The Network Gets Physical

Cassette Culture ·

2024/12/23

1980’s cassette networking branched out into independent radio shows, physical meet ups and gigs. For 14 years Sandy Nys ran his radio show on Antwerp's Radio Centraal, amplifying and connecting the scene. Through these connections, he ran his 3RioArt label, launched Belgian EBM influencers, The Klinik and later, electronic ritual collective, Hybryds. Mindscan Tapes label owner Rob Maycock talks about quickly building international networks and collaborations with Treble King in the USA and

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21:57

Chance Connections - He Got Talking To This Guy In...

Cassette Culture ·

2024/12/09

Steve Gears (Pharoah Chromium Sound/The Happy Citizen), Richard Talbot (Marconi Union) and Tom Gibbs, (Infinite Expanse) take us further down the rabbit hole in this episode. We even got hold of some archive radio recording from “On The Wire” on BBC Radio Lancashire in 1989. Cassette-era music comes from: Sirius B, Basie V. Webster, Marconi Union, Richter Band and Omega Ensemble First, we talk to Steve Gears, the founder of the Pharoah Chromium Sound label, who shares how he stumbled upon this

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18:48

Find The Others

Cassette Culture ·

2024/11/25

A decade before the widespread adoption of the internet, a group of artists and musicians established an underground network to share their work with kindred spirits via the mail system. Starting our story from a dark, isolated UK in the late 1980's, with mass youth unemployment. We take a journey with some key figures from the Cassette Scene, who provide a firsthand account of the collaborative spirit and sense of discovery that permeated the cassette culture scene. Guests: Martin

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2:12

Analog Connections - Join The Cassette Network

Cassette Culture ·

2024/11/16

Taking the DIY message of Punk as a jumping off point, our travel through the underground cassette network departs from the bleak 1980's Thatcher-era UK, community radio and fanzines, and all points in a journey to a thriving self sustaining culture. Communication was valued over commerce. For two decades the international mail system fostered a network of underground artists, exchanging cassette tapes of music and homemade artwork under the radar of main stream media. We track down some key

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20 results

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