Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here [Backwards Cassette Tape]

Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here (1975)

BACKMASKED!?* o___o 

*(well, kinda)

Discogs Entry

I love Pink Floyd. Considering my dad would often recite this with a flawless impersonation and strum "Wish You Were Here" on guitar, I've been a Pink Floyd fan my entire life. So while I usually avoid used major label tapes, I didn't hesitate when I picked up a cassette copy of Wish You Were Here, especially with it's alternative cover to the CD release I've had for years.

My first listen revealed how bizarre this cassette was. Now to preface the initial confusion: I was using my Sony dual deck that allows both A and B playback, so I wasn't sure which side I was playing immediately. I simply rewound it to the nearest start and pressed play. I casually listened to the tape on headphones, beginning to wonder if it was a bad copy because of the muffled playback. The droning intro also lasted much longer than I expected, so I fast-forwarded, turned up the volume, and listened again, flipping to the other side as well to get an idea of which track was playing. It then dawned on me that it wasn't poor quality, it was backwards!

I admit I was a bit freaked out initially. I've been fascinated by backmasking for a long time, well aware of the many documented examples of it being used. Wish You Were Here is not one of them. Furthermore, this was a seemingly unaltered commercial release, not a homemade tape, therefore not a product of some hypothetical black magic dubbing session. My fears subsided when I realized my cassette deck didn't show the following signs of possession: 

1. Catching on fire
2. Spitting my cassette out
3. Oozing pea soup from the RCA outlets
4. Flashing '666' on the counter

After letting the tape play out, I promptly exorcised it and buried it under concrete, in order to avoid this from occurring:

Ok, not really, in fact I forgot about it for awhile. With the blog in mind I digitized the tape a couple days ago, confirming a very simple explanation for what actually occurred. The tape reel inside became twisted, essentially flipping most of the magnetic tape wrong-side out, explaining both the backwards playback and muffled sound (since the tapehead is reading oxide on the opposite side instead of the near side). Two very detailed and informed explanations can be found in this Audiokarma thread and in the last paragraph of this webpage. 

The clue in the faulty recording is the beginning of what is mostly Side A. "Have a Cigar" begins playing normally until 3:00, when it fades out, replaced by the ending of "Welcome To The Machine" commencing backwards. This is followed by "Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Parts I–V" backwards. Side B begins with "Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Parts VI-IX" backwards, followed by the title track backwards, then transitioning into the remainder of "Have A Cigar," which is now backmasked. Finally, a jarring switch to the tail-end of "Welcome To The Machine" occurs. From 21:00 onward there's just tape hiss, but if you listen carefully you can faintly hear "Have a Cigar" playing a 3rd time, again backwards. This makes sense though - it's Side A bleeding through the recording, returning full circle.

So to sum up the new tracklist:

Side A:

• 3 minutes of "Have A Cigar" (normal)
• Most of "Welcome To The Machine" (backwards)
• "Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Parts I–V" (backwards)

Side B:

• "Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Parts VI-IX" (backwards)
• "Wish You Were Here" (backwards)
• Remainder of "Have A Cigar" (backwards)
• End of "Welcome To The Machine" (normal)
• (tape hiss with Side A bleeding through faintly)

Conclusion? The tape is either a factory dud or at some point the reel became twisted around and mistimed at the beginning and end of each side. No more mystery, but on the upside it's safe to say few albums would sound cooler backmasked than than Wish You Were Here. It's a happy [freakish] accident!

Side-"A"

Side-"B"

Technical info

Country: U.S.A.
Label: CBS/Columbia
Case: Norelco w/ black base
J-card: Original label j-card
(C-47) Type I
Actual run time: approx 23:20 per side
Editing notes: Normalized to -0.3 db, despite backwards and mistimed playback, this is still one of the better tapes I've recorded. Left/right balance was perfect, no wow-and-flutter nor excessive tape hiss.

USSR Mixtape

Various Artists - "Soviet Mixtape "(1990)

Hi-Resolution Gallery

Another find in a Austin area thrift store, along with a few other Cyrillic inscribed tapes from the Eastern Bloc. While I'm fairly good at finding context clues, this particular cassette, with it's red color scheme, clearly written date, and hand-drawn hammer & sickles, was a clearly a no-brainer. As with the rest of the world, tapes were a fixture in the Soviet Union throughout the 80s. Cassette players were manufactured domestically, often resembling American and Japanese Walkmans and boom-boxes. Both mainstream commercial and underground music was dubbed and distributed, only in Soviet Union...tapes mix you!*

Unfortunately, I have no idea who is on this tape, as translating it myself would be time-consuming. I did immediately notice that the tape has an identical "bumper" at the beginning of each side, some sort of melody repeated twice in left and right channels (to prove it's in stereo perhaps?), then a cheesy explosion sound effect, followed by an announcement and a snippet of a song. Perhaps some sort of trademark on the part of the dubber? Tracks are consistently spaced out as well. The recording itself is a bit rough but not terrible. The cassette used is a Kontak C-60, a common brand of the era. Like many other Soviet blank tapes, the graphic design is quite nice: basic colors, simple designs. Not at all a major depature from Maxells and TDKs of the era. It's a straight copy of Western design: no-frills, cheap and seemingly reliable, but not remotely great by any means (i.e. Soviet tech in a nutshell).

Both sides consist of uptempo rock songs, all male vocalists and for the most pop-oriented or soft rock. There are couple "Springsteen-esque" ballads in there as well, but nothing slow or melancholy. Lot of it sounds self-aware of it's own silliness (track at 19:10 on Side-2 kicks off with an amazing quasi-jazzy MIDI keyboard rendition of Mendelssohn's "Wedding March"). I'm assuming this is a late 80s mixtape of VIA pop artists and late 80's Russian Rock bands. Based off that, it's likely a bootleg or personal dub copy of "state-friendly" music instead of say, a underground mixtape. No noisy, rough post-punk or metal tracks here. The last 5 minutes of Side 1 consist of some slick synth-pop dance music but, to my disappointment, cuts out shortly after. Fun tape overall, would make for make for a great standby mixtape for a weekend drive, especially in a Lada with the windows rolled down.

*(I am so so sorry, I couldn't resist the temptation)

"Sade-1"

"Sade-2"

Technical info

Country: U.S.S.R.
Label: N/A (homemade mixtape)
Case: Norelco w/ black base
J-card: original Kontak j-card, tracklist and title info filled out (along with 3 hammer & sickle doodles)
C-60 Type I: black Kontak MK 60●5
Actual run time: 30:40 per side
Editing notes: Normalized to -0.3 db, right channel dropped out from 27:20 to 27:40 on Side-1, this was converted to mono for mp3 copy. Further playback confirmed error is part of the original dubbing.

Various Artists: Narada Collection 3 (Custom mixtape)

Various Artists - Narada Collection 3 (1991)

Hi-Resolution Gallery

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)

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.

Welcome!

Welcome to Tape Escape! This blog will document my efforts to archive the many unique cassette tapes I have in my collection. After figuring out a digitizing and scanning workflow over the past few weeks, things are finally up and running, starting with a scan and upload of Jaxon Crow's Nextworld cassette release. More tapes to come in the days, weeks, and months ahead as I digitize and share my collection.

Happy listening!