Cassette Tapes

The new album 'Medicine to Sleep to, Vol.1' by the latest iteration of the Manchester collective 6a6y 6, Klavier Gruppe.

Formed of equal doses of tense minimalism and cacophonous free-jazz, the album twists and turns in on itself like the hallucinations of the mind that seeks rest.

The latest from Do Your Best comes from Manchester's Another; Country $$$$ with their album 'GRIEF STRICKEN LISTED BUILDINGS'.

The album ceaselessly melds the warped, the gritty and the shiny to form a blissful space where beauty is simultaneous with uncertainty.

With beautiful and exclusive new artwork from NGA D'Grayt (@nga_dgrayt) both inside and out, the album is presented on a luscious transparent red cassette.

'The Complete Illustrated Book of Failure' is the second album from industrial-punk outfit, Self Love.

A concept album tracing the journey of Don Quixote and his companion Sancho Panza in the epic Cervantes novel, the tracks freely move between the claustrophobic meanderings of 'Livin' La Vida Locust' to the anxious release of tracks like 'Knight of Cups'.

A lesson in human fallibility and changing musical dynamics, stay on your toes.

Artwork by @nga_dgrayt

Limited Edition Black Cassette with Exclusive Zine

Barcelona-based singer-songwriter and Slow Dance signee Uma releases debut EP ‘Bel-li’, via “the collective at the cutting edge of London’s live music scene” (Dazed), Slow Dance, (the likes of Black Midi, Jockstrap, Sorry, Goat Girl, PVA, Squid and more).

‘Bel-li’ is composed of five tracks, emphasising Uma’s intensely interpersonal and deep connection with music and lyricism. “Writing for me is my way of processing and expressing the world around me and the experiences I’ve gone through. I feel a lot for the people I’m surrounded with and the issues I really care about, such as mental health and the under-representation of females within the music industry.

These tracks, though accessible in their listenability, blur the lines of traditional genres, as Uma focuses on the beauty and versatility of sound. The use of classical arrangements and Spanish guitar are a beautiful echo of her roots and upbringing. At the heart of these releases lie a sense of raw humanity and honesty. With arduous intensity, she expresses: “It is all about home and falling into a great love. Late night bowls of spaghetti in your belly. Endless summers watching the sunset from my roof. Imminent tragedy and inescapable melancholy.”

Aftershock is a collaborative effort by violinist extraordinaire Mia Zabelka, Vienna and extreme metal bassist/guitarist Arun N, Bangalore which reflects their respective styles and playing, equal parts of soothing ambience, textures make way for improvised parts created predominantly from violin and bass guitar

Juxtaposed with a vibe of post-apocalyptic illegal but now legal gatherings, aftershock gently caresses never before heard hard ambient with free improvisation, techno and experimental electronic music all in a single wave packed into a solid 60 min set meant to be heard from beginning to end in a single sitting to grasp. Adding to this concoction is a special guest, trumpet veteran Joshua Trinidad from Denver

Recorded in the covid months of 2020 (August to October in Vienna, Austria and Bangalore, India). C60, J-card, postcard, presentation envelope.

A sample track from Untitled by Hooded Communion.

A limited run of 50 cassette tapes.

Imagine if Jeffery Lee Pierce from The Gun Club was trapped in purgatory and forced to watch everything ITV had ever produced for eternity, then you'd be somewhere near the nightmarish sounds of Swedish Magazines. 

 

Experimental electronics from drummer, writer, producer and artist Matt Tulloch.
Guitar - Performed by Charlie Coxedge 
Saxophone - Performed by JJ Box

Super high quality sky blue Cassette with a red ribbon Obi strip.
Housed within a vellum case. 
Very limited copies available.

'Billennium Soundscapes is a beguiling mix of live performed electronic percussion and toasty, burnt out synthesisers. A sound that slops into your ear holes and clags brain cavities with a syrupy sonic cream.'

This album was produced over Christmas 2020 in a semi-derelict hideout on the outskirts of Blackpool, England.

All the Drums & Percussion were performed live on an electronic kit and recorded (as were the synths) directly to cassette.

The second part of this unnerving double-header 'Medicine to Sleep to, Vol.2' is the new album by the latest iteration of Manchester's 6a6y 6, Klavier Gruppe.

Formed of equal doses of tense minimalism and cacophonous free-jazz, the album twists and turns in on itself like the hallucinations of the mind that seeks rest.

A collaboration between Our Wrongs (Kenny Sanderson, Adam Jennings) & God Is War (Mack Shami).

3 track cassette. Art work by Shea Hardacre - 2 sided j-card, Side A Label, 2 sided postcard. Red cassette shell, presentation envelope.

Two years, two self-released albums and various UK and international live shows later, j.b. glazer returns to Them There for another round of mutant club hitters and abstracted dungeon blues. Following on from the blinding 2018 debut album ‘Compact Break’ - ‘Divine Glint Music’ captures glazer working to the utmost extremes of his practice, wrestling with themes of duality to give rise to some of his most realised and polished work to date.

Divine Glint Music represents a stirring experiment in new production techniques for j.b. glazer, initiated through the reconstruction of forgotten collaborative material and the use of turntables as a compositional tool. His natural flare for sample manipulation and drum programming are apparent throughout but ‘Divine Glint Music’ is set apart from previous works by a new sense of spontaneity and impulsiveness. 

Recorded live in London 2020. Recreated using original recordings featuring Bianca Scout, Violence Grass Band, Elena Isolini, James Walker and Halfs.

This is the debut album from Algernon Cornelius, the son of Irish and Jamaican immigrants – he is a rapper, producer and multi-instrumentalist from Leeds, currently residing in sunny Manchester. Notable throughout both Leeds and Manchester’s DIY scenes, he’s shared stages with the likes of Armand Hammer, Moor Mother, Cakes Da Killa, Shabazz Palaces and The Bug, in addition to performing at Gilles Peterson’s We Out Here Festival and producing for R.A.P. Ferreira and Pijn. 

Limited edition of 35 copies worldwide, only available in physical form.

Designed by Dan J Towns.

DANCE POLICY CASSETTE MIXTAPE
Downtempo/dream pop/piano

Side A: Low Stress Training - Gate of Horn

Side B: Sadie - So humble in the afternoon

A limited run of 50 cassette tapes.

A 20-minute ambient radioplay set in the deepest recesses of a South Manchester winter 10 or so years ago.

A deep dive into the isolation, the darkness, and the thick fog, through all the estates from Lancashire Hill to Deneway Court. Three L.S. Lowry stick figures on the run from the every day, a huge viaduct cutting across the land and a lighthouse buried underneath, the destination they are trying to reach. Speak, memory.

Heavily inspired by NWW, The Shadow Ring, The Fall, two sides of pain-killer drones revisited and revised endlessly from endorphin, one half of 1-800-ICEMAN/Grimescapes.

The 2nd of 3 drøne reissues, released on cassette for the first time, in anticipation of new material from the band late '19, early '20. a perfect blind was first released on Pomperipossa Records in 2017.

An impressive evolution from the duo’s 2016 debut, using Reversing Into Future's shortwave radio transmissions, cryptic snatches of dialog, and droning synths as a foundation for something more substantial and melodic

Limited to 50 copies worldwide. 

Limited editon white casette.

Prior to the release of their 4th album later this year, we are delighted to announce we are re-issuing all of the first 3 releases by drøne on cassette for the first time.

We begin with reversing into the future, initially released on vinyl in 2016 through Pomperipossa Records. Field recordings, short wave radio, modular synth all combine to form an enticing, arresting, moving journey of electrically-charged dissonance, drones and electronic melodies. It´s a unique jewel.

A very hot day in the hills above Los Angeles… only possible to work in the mornings because of the sweltering afternoon heat, so all a bit frantic, but with a kink in time. There is no wifi-controlled air conditioning; the car is electric-powered and charging up. It has barely rained for months, (if not years) and the hoses are working overtime. Its an analogue session; Mark’s modular synth set up is working furiously and overheating. We are pushing sounds through and seeing what works… and things gradually take shape. The forms seem to determine themselves; how much control do we have? How much do we want? Some peculiar things start to happen and the haze bends. Some of the sounds seem alive and are quick to reform as we struggle to contain them, like trying to stuff snakes into a bag. The sounds moan and sing, forming their own phonemes.

drøne are Mark Van Hoen and Mike Harding.

A limited run of 50 cassette tapes worlwide.

Helsinki based producer Eppu Kaipainen returns to Decaying Spheres. Poiu explores how music can change our perception of time, with an investigation into the Eno-creed of ambient; when something is both ignorable and focusable, lending itself to an amorphous feeling of time.

The seven tracks convey a sense of temporal empathy, reflecting on life’s instabilities, it’s constant precursors; a dramatic change, a shift, a turnaround, a relapse. The album explores both the significant and insignificant. The juxtaposition of the momentous and the monotonous. Like the beauty that can be found in a typical week, the ritualistic nature of stability and routine is as essential as those more pivotal moments.

Poiu is a collection of long-form drones that elegantly interprets these themes through considered tape loops, saturated synths and layered modular sequences, creating a lush atmospheric sound that never quite lets the underlying darkness come to the forefront.

Limited edition cassette tape - only 25 copies worldwide.

Decaying Spheres' second release is an international effort from some of the labels favourite artists. The tape drifts seamlessly between ten deep ambient cuts, offering a tasteful eclectic mix.

Limited edition cassette tape - only 50 copies worldwide.

Track list:

Bonzaii - Life on a Blade
Hynta - Badlands 
Ghost Signs - Let Fly Thy Vagabond Heart 
SVR - A Promise 
Volunteer Coroner - Fantasy in Flashing Lights 
Eppu Kaipainen feat Embry お兄ちゃん - My House is Torn Down Every Evening 
Employee Of The Month - Augur 
Güsh - Gaunt 
Σπαταλώ χρόνο - αδυναμία, έλλειψη, λεπτότητα, χαύνωση 
Seed Faith - Projection Forecast

Manchester label Icecapades kicked off 2014 with a split cassette release courtesy of London’s Joey Fourr, and Denmark’s Eerie Glue. Two bedroom-producing-autodidacts, who armed with nothing more than a library of 808-style beats, and treacle-thick-gloopy guitars, have conspired to serve up a seven song release crammed with tight, lo-fi pop songs heavy on esotericism and melody.

Keen observers may recognise Joey Fourr as the moniker under which former-Tubelord frontman, Joe Prendergast has been doggedly toiling for the past 18 months or so, putting out a flurry of well regarded 'zines and E.Ps in the process. Joe is also one of the brains behind burgeoning London based label, and live promoters, Crumb Cabin. Responsible for recent, immaculately packaged releases from the likes of Radical Boy, and Los Cripis.

Less familiar to some may be the name Eerie Glue (aka Copenhagen resident Benjamin Eroğlu), with this cassette marking as it does his first release in the U.K. Responsible for two excellent digital only collections last year, the three tracks on his side of the tape provide a gratifying introduction to those tuning in. Alongside the elements that make up a typical lo-fi release, sits a real cultivated deftness in the manner that these tracks have been put together, both in terms of the rich melodic texture on offering, and his sparse, economical production manner.

Five tracks of bedroom produced, speaker-tickling, unhinged noise digressions, and layers of fuzz-punk blast are delivered with an ice-cold, laconic air. 'Destroys the Moon' will chime with those hipped to Moe's work with her other bands, Dog Legs & As Ondas, as well as those who had their ears pricked up by her only other previous release, the now long sold out, 'Saves Planet Earth' E.P.

Carl Brown announces a new project ckeener and turns in his first album for Them There. ‘Decoration’ sees a swift sidestep for Brown, bridging the unfettered field recording led work as Preston Field Audio with Them There Records’ principal pop absurdity. Using found sounds and recordings collected on an iPhone and Zoom for over two years, Brown has shaped an album of raucous plunderphonics and freesound sampledelia.

Until now Brown’s work has been focused on his now internationally celebrated project Preston Field Audio, including recent collaborations with KAARST, Plymouth artist Keith Harrison and sold out releases for Concrete Tapes and his own label Set Foot Press.

Mastered by Tim Crompton at Another Studio Manchester, the album also features additional production from Them There’s Pun Collins. A proper in-house job.

Pun Collins lands back at Them There for his new solo release titled 'Dying Together’. Following on from his previous LP for Them There, 2018’s minimalist-pop ‘Lunar Influence’, ‘Dying Together’ proves a natural progression for Axel Lacan as he further explores the peripheries of post-genre dance music for an optimistic perspective on the end times. Prophetic themes of isolation are a linchpin to Lacan’s often bleak narratives. In navigating us through this new record, Lacan searches for the dim lights on the horizon, frequently weaving in moments of sheer new-age ecstasy so as never to let the vibe settle.

Offering up his essential pallet of spectral synths, deep subs, and organic, layered percussion as a framework, darkly cinematic architectures crumble away as Lacan once again holds us at the precipice of a myriad of musical influences. The abstract sound world created here is a highly nuanced blanket, detailed with Pun Collins’ signature dynamic and pacing smoothly draped over a bed of Ambient, Trance, Funk, and Soul.

Them There Records presents the new album ‘Solarphones’ from Yorkshire based musician and sound artist Chris Ruffoni. These new recordings are taken from a touring installation project in which Chris explores positioning his bespoke, handbuilt wooden sculptures named Solarphones amidst various outdoor spaces to interact with the sunlight, shadow and the architecture of the setting.

Presented on this release as two 22 minute field recordings, chosen as highlights from numerous installations in woodland and reservoirs around West Yorkshire between April and May 2020. The instruments are tuned in modes using just intonation, each side of the tape reflects one mode.

Throughout Summer 2020 ‘Solarphones’ has been invited to be installed at several (unfortunately postponed) UK festivals including Supernormal and Bluedot Festival.