For Old Times Sake

Dust off that old vinyl and dig out those cassettes you stuffed at the back of a cupboard. Take some time on a Sunday afternoon, make a cup of tea and play the first piece of vinyl or the first cassette you ever bought. Do you remember how special it felt to bring it home, unwrap it and play it, all shiny and new for the very first time? I hope so. If not, try again. And if you still don't get it then sell all of the records and tapes you own, there's no hope for you.

I think people have been so caught up in the accessibility of music and media online that the superior sound quality of vinyl compared to the standard MP3 doesn't get taken into consideration. Even cassette tapes have a depth and warmth that an Mp3 just doesn't have. The memories that a single tape can bring back are worth holding onto, the very first mixtape someone made just for you or songs recorded from the radio.

I was fascinated at how music could be generated from vinyl and cassette tapes when I was a kid. I just couldn't get my head around the fact that all of these voices and instruments could be produced from this seemingly simple form. The intricacies of recording and the physical manifestation of music, this wonderful human thing being on/in this inanimate object and all that entails has captured part of me and won't let go. I'm still enchanted by vinyl be it Johnny Cash or Battles!

I could rant for hours about my opinions and the analogue versus digital debate but now is not the time. I will save it for a rainy day.