Trev’s Virtual Cassette Library 317
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 sea of grey that arrives before the coastline decides to be there, then a planet that kept the heating off.
Side A fogs the unlit lighthouse, files the middle of nowhere under the average of the average, watches a building take the hint, holds its breath in a Marienbad corridor that will not let you leave, asks if it is conscious now at the altitude where the light stops answering, and leaves the missing puzzle piece missing. Side B keeps the silent water from rippling on cue, leaves wormcasts on the lawn as agriculture and omen, notices the getaway too late and closes the car door very softly, skims a stone across a garden pond that remembers Atlantis, approaches a curve it is never allowed to touch, and dims the cabin lights on a cold planet with a bowl left by the airlock.
Overall mood: Contemplative, slightly uneasy, and quietly unfinished — full of silent rooms, almost-arrivals, and maps that share a shoreline they should not. Perfect for dusk listening, corridors that will not end, or sitting still while the lotus holds its breath for the title of the night.
Mood mist: pieces that will not fit, a sun too white to look at, hotel corridors that forget the year, a structure agreeing to fall, the average of nowhere, a grey sea that learned how to fog a window.
00:01:55 Sven Laux & Logic Moon – The Fog
https://whitelabrecs.bandcamp.com/album/sea-of-grey
From the album: Sea of Grey. Label: whitelabrecs
The Fog. Sea of Grey doing what grey seas do — arriving before the coastline has decided to be there. Whitelabrecs leaving the lighthouse unlit on purpose.
00:05:25 Mike Hans STEFFL – middle of nowhere
https://mikehanssteffl.bandcamp.com/track/middle-of-nowhere
From the album: average of the average. Label: Aural Films
Middle of nowhere, filed under the average of the average. Aural Films scoring a place that exists only because the map got bored.
00:09:26 BUNKR – Construct Collapse
https://bunkr-music.bandcamp.com/track/construct-collapse
From the album: Signs. Label: VLSI Records
Signs that pointed at a building, then watched the building take the hint. VLSI keeping the rubble in tune.
00:14:39 Simon Heartfield – Silent Rooms
https://simonheartfield.bandcamp.com/track/silent-rooms
From the album: Last Year At Marienbad.
Last year at Marienbad, which may also be this year, which may also be a corridor that will not let you leave. Title of the night. The lotus holds its breath.
00:18:21 HAWKSMOOR – Into The White Sun
https://hawksmoor.bandcamp.com/track/into-the-white-sun
From the album: Am I Conscious Now?
Am I conscious now? The question asked at the altitude where the light stops answering.
00:22:03 Möe – Incierta
https://secuenciastemporales.bandcamp.com/track/m-e-incierta
From the album: Möe – Once you Have the Pieces (ST023). Label: Secuencias Temporales
Once you have the pieces, the puzzle declines to be finished. Secuencias Temporales letting the missing bit stay missing.
Mood mist: water that will not speak, soil turned by something without a face, a getaway noticed too late, a garden pond that remembers a drowned city, a curve that never quite arrives, a planet that kept the heating off.
00:28:16 Luca Longobardi – GMM1 (Bonus Track)
https://luca-longobardi.bandcamp.com/track/gmm1-bonus-track
From the album: Aqua Tacita. Label: Seil Records
GMM1, the bonus the silent water didn’t advertise. Aqua Tacita — still water, Seil holding the surface so it doesn’t ripple on cue.
00:34:14 Screaming Alice – Wormcasts
https://meansmag.bandcamp.com/track/wormcasts
From the album: Label: MEANS
Grass roots doing the quiet work underground, then leaving the evidence on the lawn. MEANS filing it under agriculture and under omen.
00:41:19 Unterm Rad – They’re On To Us
https://mahorka.bandcamp.com/track/theyre-on-to-us
From the album: The Getaway. Label: Mahorka
They’re on to us. The getaway already photographed. Mahorka closing the car door very softly.
00:45:01 Snufmumriko – Trädgårdsdammen och Atlantis
https://le-mont-analogue.bandcamp.com/track/tra-dga-rdsdammen-och-atlantis
From the album: Talisman. Label: Le Mont Analogue
The garden pond and Atlantis, sharing one shoreline. A talisman you can skim a stone across. Le Mont Analogue keeping both maps.
00:49:59 pollsign – Emergence
https://pollsign.bandcamp.com/track/emergence
From the album: Asymptote. Label: Triplicate Records
The line the curve approaches and is never allowed to touch. Triplicate printing three copies of almost.
00:53:27 Dionisaf – Cold Planet
https://dionisaf.bandcamp.com/track/cold-planet-2
From the album: Spacetrip. Label: Ambient Cat
Spacetrip with the cabin lights dimmed. Ambient Cat leaving a bowl by the airlock, just in case.
This has been The Virtual Cassette Library, episode 317.
Travel safely between the frequencies.
I’ll meet you on the other side of the next spool.
