We interviewed John Cale in issue #156 around the time of his previous release, Mercy. He has just released POPtical Illusion, a collection of synth and keyboard heavy tunes that carry a heavy, and at times angry message about the state of the world. That is not to say that that Cale has lost all hope and there is optimism that we can still bring about change. POPtical Illusion was produced by Cale along with longtime artistic collaborator Nita Scott.
"...from what I have seen, the industry is fatally flawed. Everyone seems to want something for nothing and few are willing to pay for what something is actually worth. Plus, there are thousands of graduates flooding recording studios each year...
Tape Op contributor Allen Farmelo has written a fairly in-depth post regarding his processes for capturing and processing sounds on his wonderful blog. Check it out. I bet even some experienced engineers will take note of some of the ideas Allen puts...
In issue #62, Josh Boughey reviewed the Monome 40h, a minimalist button-and-light interface which can be used to run musical applications. It's absolutely captivating in its simplicity; I'm writing this as an outsider, but as far as I can tell, the...
Interviews, Stories, and the Truth
by Larry Crane
In Tape Op issue #53 I interviewed Brian Kehew and Kevin Ryan, authors of the then-recently released book, Recording The Beatles. One of the topics we discussed was interviewing...
I'm posting this for John as he's finishing up the next issue of Tape Op. -LC
John Baccigaluppi's 2008 AES Surf Report This year's AES show in San Francisco was a lot of fun. The day before the show, I drove with our UK publisher Al Lawson and his...
Pitchfork TV (some spinoff of the horrible, snotty music crit site) has launched a series called A>D>D.
"The title for the series is based on the ADD/AAD/DDD codes that appeared on compact discs in the late 80s and early 90s, in which ADD...
Hipper music bloggers than you're likely to ever find here have been freaking out over surrealist hip hop duo Das Racist for a while now, ever since the Pineapple Express rap tune "Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell" came out earlier this year. Even...
I just got an email from a company telling me that I need to buy the new version of a product of theirs - I already own the one that came out several years ago. I guess the $3000 I invested in their hardware wasn't enough, and now I need to buy a new...
It's that time of year again where we go back through our digital listening histories or simply look over at the turntable to get a handle on just what we were enjoying this past year. There were a ton of great releases this year, many of them...