| StoreTags: time capsule, foreign music, analogue
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I recently won 28 tape reels for my reel to reel deck on ebay. As soon as I opened the box, I was hit with the smell of dust and a faint whiff of mothballs. All the boxes for the reels were intact, but yellowed and faded with age. I opened the first reel container, and a yellowed piece of paper fell out. To my suprise (and delight) it was a tracklist written in Russian! I started opening all of the other boxes, and sure enough, all of the other slips were written in combination russian/english. All of the reels were recorded in the 1960's, and as far as I can tell, contain combinations of music from russia, the middle east, and greece, but they all have that 60's studio flavor of smooth mantovani or 101 strings.
It's kind of like opening a time capsule. I doubt that they've been touched for decades, and handling these things makes me feel like I'm somehow connected to whoever recorded them in the first place.
Now I have to decide whether I actually want to record over some of them, or if I should try to find another lot of reels that hopefully doesn't include music that's so durn interesting. | |
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07/02/07
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DrexonField
Very cool 
07/02/07
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mlbot
burn 'em to CD?
07/02/07
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Tripnik
I was thinking about that, but the quality is pretty lofi and the music waxes cheesy at times. I'm not sure if I could appreciate them as much on disc as I do now. Then again, that might mean that I'm a total wanker. In any case, I've never wanted to build a tiki bar more than I do now. This would all make some swank ass 'exotic' cocktail lounge music.
07/02/07
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sAMsKi
wicked man. my mate emily has unearthed some similar gems for her reel to reel...
07/02/07
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Zanf
I brought a 4 track reel to reel the other day and got 20 reels but they were all brand new with nowt on them. bastards - i got ripped off.
07/02/07
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Otterfan
I'm of the opinion that taping over anything is a crime. (That's why I went from tape -> computer).
Definitely burn them to CD. If not for you, then for Deltasleep.
07/02/07
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berfmurret
clips or it didn't happen!!! O_O_O_O_O
07/02/07
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Tripnik
Here's a song off of the first reel. It's not as orchestral as some of the other ones. I think I may have to at least put these on cd, although that'll take a lot of time. It could be fun for a rainy afternoon...
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I wonder how some of these were recorded. On a few of the tracks, you can hear what sounds like duder bumping into his microphone.
I'm especially curious about the reel titled "chemistry notes".
07/02/07
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astroid
oh man please record those to cd. they are beautiful!
07/02/07
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Dozius
dude, you have to back these up somewhere. it would be criminal to let them just disappear. it's like finding buried treasure!
07/02/07
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deltasleep
You need to record them and then post an mp3 mix of them for me. 1 hour at least! Is there any personal recording on these? Because often, reel to reel recorders were marketed like camcorders are now. You might find stuff like recordings of grandpa, stuff like that. I've found a few "audio postcards" that are just short reels that say something like "boy we're sure havin fun in new orleans but its so hot, miss you ethel, etc etc etc."
If the player will play at double speed you should scan the whole tape for that sort of stuff- to me it's priceless. It's also amazing what people will just throw away! recordings of your young grandmother on vacation! you ought to be ashamed of yourself.
07/02/07
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populus
amazing! i wanna buy tape off ebay now!
07/02/07
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Tripnik
Yeah, they will definitely be backed up on cd (and probably also mp3). However, I still don't think I'd be able to record over them. The found art aspect of them is too cool to destroy.
Further development...some of the tapes have degraded. The 2 sides of the tape are blending together so while one side is playing forwards, the other side is simultaneously playing backwards and slightly quieter. They were also originally recorded mono, so the two sides play on opposite channels. This is too cool.
07/02/07
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deltasleep
also fun: buying blank cassettes at thrift stores, especially if you can find the kind of answering machines. You'll get like an hour of other people's messages.
07/02/07
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zfigz
Sweeet, let us know when you have them recorded...I'd love to hear.
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