THE TAPE-BEATLES were founded in 1987 with
a mind toward adopting techniques and ideas from concrete music toward a
musical project intended to have broader appeal. In a nutshell, the Tape-beatles
set themselves to the task of creating music without using musical instruments,
at least in the conventional sense. Their essential tool was the analog
tape recorder, ubiquitous in the form of the cassette recorder, although
it was through using other forms of this instrument in various configurations
of tracks that the Tape-beatles' oeuvre came to ripe (some would say, over-ripe)
fruition.
The Tape-beatles approached their music, and the
medium of tape, from the direction of collage, the most typical and typifying
art form of the 20th century. What better medium existed for portraying
the essentially fragmented nature of this period in history? The Tape-beatles
could see no other, and immediately applied themselves to the task of taking
advantange of this insight before conditions changed, inevitably rendering
this modus laughably obsolete.
To their consternation, they continue to wait,
even after the fact of their disbanding. To their delight, their three major
works remain timeless beacons of a set of crystalline moral imperatives,
to wit, and we quote:
- We make music that can be made by anyone. We
take devices made for reproduction of music; i.e., for passive listening,
and deflect them to the task of actively engaging their pseudo-secret possibilities
to the production new listening experiences that may come from the news,
but never sounds like it.
- We use Plagiarism® to critically expose that
we have become what we have. What does it mean to "own" an idea?
The Tape-beatles maintain that this is symptomatic of a diseased culture
and like to quote Thomas Jefferson, third President of the United States:
- He who receives an idea from me, receives
instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper
at mine, receives light without darkening me.
- The much-touted idea of "originality"
is deeply suspect when, for the past fifty years the art world has been
hurling insults at the public, and being very "original" in doing
so. It isn't sufficient just to be original -- that's actually quite easy
--- the important thing is to be honest and give something useful to society.
(Of course, they probably won't accept it.)
The astute reader might have guessed by now that
it's been an uphill struggle for the Tape-beatles, and they'd be right.
But nothing will stop them from following their vision. But you can support
them by buying their music. Peruse the labyrinthine slurry of products they
offer in the details below. |
