Jaxon Crow: Nextworld

Jaxon Crow - Nextworld (1987)

Hi-Resolution Gallery

The inaugural entry of Tape Escape! is appropriately enough one of my favorite tapes in possession: a new age gem by the late Jaxon Crow (aka James R. McLaughlin, Jr.) who resided in Dallas, Texas. Being a fan of all types of ambient music, past and present, it is easily the tape I've been most eager to share. Just finding it alone was quite a blessing in retrospect, this was sitting in a pile of second-hand tapes at an Austin area Goodwill a year or so ago. I bought it based off curiosity and a overall good vibe, much of which was given off by j-card artwork, which is uniquely colored in with bright marker colors.

The music itself is best described as "new age," but I must stress that this is hardly a stereotypical late 80s new age album. The common tropes of the era - pan flutes, ethnic percussion, crisp digital quality synth pads - are, if present, buried deep in the mix: the overall tone Nextworld is a lot closer to 70s and 80s era ambient and kosmische. It wouldn't sound remotely out of place next to any recent lo-fi synth project either, something like 1991 for instance.

Jaxon Crow in undated photo. (courtesy of JD Emmanuel)

I had to dig quite a bit to find what little about Jaxon Crow was available online. Luckily I was able to find a link to renowned Texan electronic musician James Daniel Emmanuel, better known as JD Emmanuel. Through correspondence with him I found out a bit more about Jaxon, who sadly passed away in 2005. I will continue with more details about Jaxon Crow and the musical content of Nextworld in a later post, but in the meantime, give it a listen below. If it weren't for seemingly cosmic fate this lovely music could of easily been lost, so I look forward to others enjoying his music.

Update: Biography and updated discography @ Ultravillage - big thanks to Mark Griffey for his extensive research.

Technical info

Country: U.S.
Label: Neon-Tetra (self-release imprint of Jaxon Crow), tape #1037
Case: Norelco
J-card: cardstock, single fold
C-45 Type I; unknown manufacturer
Actual run-time: approx. 22:40 per side
Editing notes: clicks at beginning and ending trimmed off, normalized from original levels of -20 to -30 db, no noise removal used.