Various Artists: Narada Collection 3 (Custom mixtape)

Various Artists - Narada Collection 3 (1991)

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Narada, along with Windham Hill, are the most frequent new age labels I've come across in my tape finds, both serving as flag-bearers of the genre in the 80s and 90s. This neat little mixtape is my first upload of a Narada release. Musically it's safe and chill: lot of keyboards, flutes, guitar flourishes, etc. Not disposable muzak or soulless jazz at all, but nothing really deep either, lot of it is akin to pleasant waiting room music or early 90s corporate soundtracks: prime vaporwave fodder.

Narada Productions began in 1983 and still exists today, but since the early 2000s has essentially become a contemporary jazz imprint. This mixtape was dubbed during the height of the label's existence, a homemade copy of a 1991 compilation. I love the custom j-card artwork, it's vastly superior to the original cover. Every tiny detail screams 90s aesthetics: the Southwest coyote howling at the moon motif (note scarf), soft pastel colors of turquoise, pink and orange, and hell, they even used a muted beige backdrop. This tape wouldn't off been out of place in a Sante Fe gift shop, in the cassette deck of a Pontiac Fiero...or well, in any of these rooms. 

Side A

Side B

Technical info

Country: U.S.
Label: N/A (homemade mixtape)
Case: Norelco
J-card: color print on regular paper, single fold
C-90 Type I: clear TDK D90 series
Actual run-time: A-side - 33:42, B-side - 43:08
Editing notes: Silence at beginning and end removed, normalized to -0.3 db

Jaxon Crow: Nextworld

Jaxon Crow - Nextworld (1987)

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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.