That time I found a cassette tape from 1992 with a song about a sentient toaster

Found a dusty shoebox at my uncle's garage sale last month and popped in a tape labeled 'Demo #7' that had a guy yelling about his toaster coming to life over a cheap drum machine beat and it was so bad I've listened to it five times now, does anyone else have a hidden gem like this from someone's basement recording session?

2 comments

2 Comments

wren30720d ago

dude that toaster song sounds like a genuine artifact haha. i found a tape from 93 at a thrift store once called "Couch Surfer" and it was just a guy complaining about his cat knocking stuff off tables for like seven minutes with a cheap synth pad. i've listened to it probably twenty times now. there's something about those total no-stakes recordings that just hits right, you know? like nobody was trying to impress anyone, they were just doing the weirdest thing they could think of for fun. that VCR rap sounds amazing too, i'd kill to hear that.

grayt4620d ago

The drum machine on that track is probably a beat up Yamaha RX5 you can hear it clipping on every kick hit. I used to roll my eyes at these lo-fi basement recordings thinking they were just excuses for bad production. But after finding a similar tape from 1990 where a guy literally raps about his malfunctioning VCR I had to take that back. There is something honest about someone spending an afternoon in their bedroom making a song about a toaster with no plan to ever release it. It is not about being good it is about the pure weirdness of the idea. That tape changed my whole view on what music can be.