I’m still shocked at the passing of Martin Phillips of The Chills. He made a number of songs and albums that truly inspired me and many others. Please check out the interview I did with him in 1997, and listen to his song “Pink Frost” if you’ve never heard his music. You’ll find the beauty and sadness of this song quite fitting. It’s one of many great songs from a great writer. -Larry Crane
Tape Op is a bi-monthly magazine devoted to the art of record making.
by John Baccigaluppi
We recently did an interview with producer Larry Klein that will run in an issue of Tape Op in 2020, but here's an excerpt about a recently-released project he worked on called Beyond Music.
A couple of years ago, these...
Tape Op lost a good friend last night when our pal Neal Casal left us all behind. Neal was a gifted guitarist, songwriter, singer, photographer, producer, surfer and just an all-around good dude.
I was lucky to work with Neal on some...
With news of Neil Young pushing to get studio quality audio out to the consumer, it occurred to me that it would be good to get some perspective on how we go about comparing audio quality. One of the most problematic issues surrounding audio...
I'm not actually going to review the music on this record; it's free, just go get it and listen to it yourself. Instead, I'm a bit fascinated by the mechanics of the release itself. As my wife said when I told her I had the record, "Does anybody...
I'm in the middle of cataloging 1.5 TB of audio files. This is the work I do for the Estate of Elliott Smith. Two computers keep Pro Tools on the top one and FileMaker Pro and Excel for track sheets on the bottom one. Otherwise the MacBook Pro...
There were so many great records released this year, in fact too many to make a definitve and exhaustive list, but here are a few favorites from the Tape Op family. Consider it a tasting menu and have a great holiday! Click link to listen!
Larry...
I interviewed David J in 2015, as I had long been a fan of his bands Bauhaus and Love & Rockets, and had been buying his solo albums since his first works in the '80s. We ended up working on some music with Barton Carroll at my studio a year or...
A Guided Tour of High Vis’ Guided Tour at Holy Mountain Studios.
By Sam Retzer
Engineer Stanley Gravett is retreating down the stairs to Holy Mountain Studio after being ‘bullied’ upstairs at the Crypt of the Wizard record...