Trev’s Virtual Cassette Library 313
Good day, listeners… or should I say, travellers of the tape.
Trevor here. You’ve pressed play on another Virtual Cassette Library. Twelve-track virtual cassettes that flips themselves at the halfway mark.
If you make music, or run a label, and fancy a place in the library, send your links or Bandcamp codes to trevlad@gmail.com. I read every one. Promise.
The shows remain free for the first week, then slip quietly into the hands of my Mixcloud subscribers, who currently have over eleven hundred other episodes waiting for them whenever the mood strikes. Subscribers also receive the expanding series of 3-hour adventures titled Veil Frequencies.
Now imagine each episode as a colossal rotating stage — a great mechanical blooming lotus. You, the audience only ever glimpse a sliver of it at a time. Every artist is allotted the exact time it takes them to perform their piece. Then they rotate out of view, and the next act glides in. The stage spins at whatever speed the track demands.
The names of the artists and labels I’ll mention before each set — or “side,” as the cassette alchemists call them. Six little incantations per set, plus a general mist of what mood to expect.
Now the stage begins to turn.
A doorway that reboots itself, then a planet showing you the face it keeps away from the sun.
Side A coughs the portal awake, paints Milan limb by limb in grey-cheek library jazz, docks Ishtar’s goddess-ship, waits for Blue Bell Hill to switch from black-and-white to blossom, folds a desert peacock that rarely leaves the room, and hums a 7-inch bodega under fluorescent strip-light.
Side B parks godhead in the sprawl, waltzes a chest-pain name you cannot pronounce, pours top brass that refuses to complicate, walks the talk until it grows bass strings, holds the only hands that exist to be held, and ends on the dark side of the earth — the hemisphere the dying star never got around to lighting.
Overall mood: Playful, cinematic, and quietly cosmic — full of Clay Pipe colour, Batov half-shut eyes, and infrastructure filed under prayer. Perfect for late listening, bodega aisles after hours, or sitting with the drawbridge down while the next spool still waits.
Mood mist: a doorway that reboots itself, Milan painted limb by limb, a goddess-ship docking on the lotus, a council estate coming into colour, a desert peacock that rarely leaves the room, a 7-inch bodega humming under fluorescent strip-light.
00:03:30 DaoLogic – Portal Reload
https://mahorka.bandcamp.com/track/portal-reload
From the album: Source Vive Label: Mahorka
The portal coughs, then remembers its password. Warm crispy beats walking you through without extrasystoles. You enter. The source is still alive.
00:07:27 Barigozzi Group – Grey Cheeks
https://fourfliesrecords.bandcamp.com/track/grey-cheeks
From the album: Woman’s Colours Label: Four Flies Records
the last colour on a body mapped in library jazz. Wurlitzer blushing while the flute keeps the secret.
00:09:34 Gong – Ship Of Ishtar
https://gongband.bandcamp.com/track/ship-of-ishtar
From the album: Unending Ascending.
Venus at the tiller. Sacred cargo under the sails, clocks not yet reset. Climb aboard — the guitar is already a spaceship, but tonight the ship is Ishtar.
00:17:50 David Boulter – Blue Bell Hill
https://claypipemusic.bandcamp.com/track/blue-bell-hill
From the album: St Ann’s Label: Clay Pipe Music
Blue Bell Hill before the demolition learned its manners. Black-and-white streets waiting for the cherry blossom to switch the world to colour.
00:20:04 Taftir – Tavasim
https://taftir.bandcamp.com/track/tavasim-2
From the EP: Od Layla Ba Ayara Label: Batov Records
Desert town, five players, a soul ballad they almost never play live. Feathers folded. The groove keeps its eyes half-shut.
00:23:05 East Side Supply – The Bodega
https://eastsidesupply.bandcamp.com/track/the-bodega
From the single: DELICATESSEN / THE BODEGA Label: Sonor Music Editions
Harpsichord and flute shopping the aisles. Axelrod hits between the tinned peaches. The bodega closes the side before the lotus can blink.
Mood mist: sprawl praying to itself, a chest-pain waltz with a name you cannot pronounce, brass that refuses to complicate, Watt walking the talk into orbit, hands that only exist to be held, a planet showing you the face it keeps away from the sun.
00:27:57 boycalledcrow – godhead
https://boycalledcrow.bandcamp.com/track/godhead
From the album: the sprawl Label: Mortality Tables
Godhead parked in the sprawl. Mortality Tables filing the prayer under “infrastructure.”
00:29:59 Angine de Poitrine – Tohogd
https://anginedepoitrine.bandcamp.com/track/tohogd
From the album: Vol.1 Label: Republic of Music
a syllable that arrived before the translation. Vol.1 still catching its breath.
00:33:53 Matt Berry – Top Brass Two
https://mattberry.bandcamp.com/track/top-brass-two
From the album: Simplicity Label: Acid Jazz Records
Top brass, second helping. Simplicity wearing a tie it does not need. Acid Jazz pouring the good stuff and leaving the bottle.
00:36:50 Galecstasy & Mike Watt Trio – Walk the Talk
https://galecstasy.bandcamp.com/track/walk-the-talk
From the album: Wattzotica Label: Mystery Circles
Walk the talk until the talk grows bass strings. Wattzotica: the stage spinning at walking pace, then suddenly not.
00:40:15 The Mistys – A Hand Is To Hold
https://themistysband.bandcamp.com/track/a-hand-is-to-hold
From the album: Situations | Useless Mouths Label: Castles In Space
A hand is to hold. Useless mouths taking the night off. Castles In Space leaving the drawbridge down.
00:43:46 Martin Solos – Dark Side of the Earth
https://martinsolos.bandcamp.com/track/dark-side-of-the-earth
From the album: Heart of a Dying Star.
the hemisphere the dying star never got around to lighting. Heart still beating in the shade.
This has been The Virtual Cassette Library, episode 313.
Travel safely between the frequencies.
I’ll meet you on the other side of the next spool.
