Cassette Culture
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<p><strong>The stories of the global underground movement that shaped experimental music and culture, told by the artists that were there…</strong></p> <p>For two decades during the '80's and '90's, the international mail system fostered a network of underground artists, exchanging cassette tapes of music and homemade artwork – all under the radar of mainstream media. Taking the DIY message of Punk as a jumping off point, we travel through the network to find the creators of the fanzines, the music, the labels and events.</p>
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Publishing Since
11/16/2024
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Recent Episodes
June 25, 2026
Tapes Received: The Factory Connection
<p>Some of the most surprising and revealing connections surface in this episode. Two worlds that rarely get mentioned in the same breath: Throbbing Gristle's<strong> Industrial Records</strong>, and Manchester's <strong>Factory Records</strong>. At the centre are two more names from the <strong>Industrial News</strong> “tapes received" list; Paul Wiggin of <strong>Section 25</strong> and Robbie MacDonald of Crawling Chaos offshoot, <strong>Zyklon B Zombies</strong>. Both aspiring musicians who connected with TG's Industrial News zine by sending cassettes of their music.</p> <p>Paul describes experiencing the crushing, low-frequency weight of the early Throbbing Gristle gigs which stunned a generation of post-punk audiences with the “sonic warfare” that the band were waging.</p> <p>Later, a direct-to-tape demo sent to <strong>Industrial Records</strong> came back with an invitation from Genesis P-Orridge to London, and a glimpse of TG’s world via a Cosey Fanni Tutti performance.</p> <p>Section 25’s support slot for <strong>Joy Division</strong>, followed with Ian Curtis's word was enough to secure a deal with Factory Records. Setting them off on recordings sessions with Martin Hannett at Cargo, and Pink Floyd's old Britannia Row studio.</p> <p>Over in Newcastle, Robbie MacDonald was working behind the scenes for <strong>The Crawling Chaos</strong>, creating sleeves, booking gigs, and supporting their own label, Foetus Products. Ahead of a gig at Whitley Bay's Rex Hotel, word went round that Throbbing Gristle themselves might turn up under an alias: <strong>Zyklon B Zombies</strong>. The backing tape built for the hoax made its way to Industrial Records as something of a joke at the band's own expense and, whatever became of any reply, it landed the Zyklon B Zombies in the "Tapes Received" list regardless.</p> <p>Two Factory scouts in that night's crowd left far more taken with The Crawling Chaos than with the prank, leading to a clandestine meet up with <strong>Tony Wilson</strong>, and the eventual release on Factory Benelux of FAC 17.</p> <p>Hosted by Martin Franklin.<br>Theme music "This Is Concrete" by The Happy Citizen.</p> <p><strong>DISCOVER THE VIDEO</strong><br>You can find videos of cassette tapes, artefacts and unboxings from the cassette underground on our YouTube channel: <a href="https://youtube.com/@CassetteCulturePodcast">youtube.com/@CassetteCulturePodcast</a></p> <p><strong>IN THIS EPISODE</strong></p> <p><strong>THANKS</strong><br>Jerry Kranitz, co-host for all interviews recorded in the series.<br>Richard Rupenus, for research and series advice.</p> <p><strong>VOICES</strong><br>Martin Franklin<br>Paul Wiggin<br>Robbie MacDonald</p> <p><strong>MUSIC</strong><br>"Fallen Monument" Section 25, Illuminus Illumina (self-released cassette)<br>"Live" Throbbing Gristle at the Ajanta Cinema, Derby, 1979<br>“Life” Side A, Zyklon B Zombies backing tape<br>"You" Section 25, Jams From The Bardo<br>"Red Voice" Section 25, Blackpool Rox EP<br>"Rose Apple Island" Section 25, Jams From The Bardo<br>"New Horizon" Section 25<br>"Death" Side B, Zyklon B Zombies backing tape<br>"Sex Machine" Crawling Chaos (demo)</p> <p><strong>LINKS</strong><br>Section 25: <a href="https://section25.com/">https://section25.com/</a><br>Crawling Chaos: <a href="https://crawlingchaos.co.uk/">https://crawlingchaos.co.uk/</a><br>Factory Records archive: <a href="https://factoryrecords.org/">https://factoryrecords.org/</a></p> <p>Section 25 "Jams From The Bardo" is available on Klanggalerie.<br><a href="https://klanggalerie.bandcamp.com/album/jams-from-the-bardo">https://klanggalerie.bandcamp.com/album/jams-from-the-bardo</a></p> <p><strong>FIND US</strong><br><a href="https://cassetteculturepodcast.com/">https://cassetteculturepodcast.com</a></p> <p><strong>SUPPORTERS</strong><br>Help us keep Cassette Culture alive! This podcast is enabled by generous supporters who contribute toward the costs of researching, producing and publishing each episode. You can become one of them at: <a href="https://cassetteculturepodcast.bandcamp.com/subscribe">https://cassetteculturepodcast.bandcamp.com/subscribe</a></p><p><a href="https://cassetteculturepodcast.bandcamp.com/subscribe" rel="payment">Help keep Cassette Culture alive - Become a Supporter: https://cassetteculturepodcast.bandcamp.com/subscribe</a></p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>
May 28, 2026
Tapes Received: Industrial Music for Industrial People
<p>From 1978-1980, Throbbing Gristle's Industrial Records published a newsletter called Industrial News. With a philosophy of exchange and transparency, they listed attendance numbers at their concerts, future label plans, and a list of contacts who had mailed them tapes of their own music: the “Tapes Received” list.</p> <p>Capturing a cultural watershed moment where the bedroom bands of the DIY Punk scene gave way to something new: <strong>ambitious, experimental, abstract, industrial</strong>. Making music using the newly available technology of synthesisers, with tape media and looping as part of the creative process.</p> <p>In this episode of Cassette Culture we begin to unravel the story of those tapes sent to Industrial Records - <strong>what was on them, and what became of the artists who sent them?</strong></p> <p>At the centre of this episode is <strong>Val Denham</strong> - painter, singer and tape experimentalist. We hear how a deliberately provocative letter to Genesis P. Orridge loaded with insider references, led to a invitation to London and the beginning of a friendship that would influence her creative life.</p> <p>Her early tape recordings won fans in Genesis and Peter Christopherson and almost became a release on Industrial Records. Val walks us through the London of the late 70’s, studying at the Royal College Of Art while creating striking artwork for TG gig flyers, attracting Some Bizarre Records’ Stevo and Marc Almond to her Degree Show. Then later creating album artwork for Marc & The Mambas, Psychic TV, and Throbbing Gristle.</p> <p><strong>Philip Sanderson</strong> of <strong>Storm Bugs</strong> and <strong>Richard Rupenus</strong> of <strong>Funeral Dance Party</strong> offer their own stories of corresponding with TG, sending in tapes, and finding themselves part of a growing international network of like-minded artists. Richard received an encouraging letter from Genesis himself; Philip developed his own music as Vote Police, Storm Bugs and launched his label, Snatch Tapes.</p> <p>Years later, after the death of Genesis P. Orridge both contributed to a search for the original “tapes received” cassettes. A search that ended at the Tate Gallery archive and, ultimately, led nowhere.</p> <p>Hosted by Martin Franklin. <br>Theme music "This Is Concrete" by The Happy Citizen.</p> <p><strong>DISCOVER THE VIDEO</strong><br>You can find videos of cassette tapes, artefacts and unboxings from the cassette underground on our YouTube channel: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@CassetteCulturePodcast">youtube.com/@CassetteCulturePodcast</a></p> <p><strong>IN THIS EPISODE</strong></p> <p><strong>THANKS</strong><br>We have benefited from the extensive knowledge of Richard Rupenus for the theme and many factual ingredients in this episode. Jerry Kranitz co-hosts all interviews recorded for the series.</p> <p><strong>VOICES<br></strong>Martin Franklin<br>Richard Rupenus<br>Philip Sanderson<br>Val Denham<br><br>Genesis P Orridge and Cosey Fanni Tutti recording from the “Other, Link Me” COUM Transmissions documentary, (BBC Television)<br><br>Richard Rupenus, read by Tim Nice.</p> <p><strong>MUSIC</strong><br>“Untitled” Funeral Danceparty, Quertyuiop (self released cassette)<br>BBC Newsbeat Radio Special, 1976, 23 Drifts To Guestling, (Iham Productions)“Swimming” Val Denham,<br>“Solely From” Storm Bugs, A Safe Substitute <br>“Untitled” Funeral Danceparty, Quertyuiop (self released cassette)<br>“Time Is Money” Val Denham<br>“Blue Red Sky” Death And Beauty Foundation (Vinyl On Demand)<br>“Make customers Matter” Storm bugs, Table Matters<br>“Untitled” Funeral Danceparty, A Celebration of iDeath (Vinyl On Demand)</p> <p><strong>LINKS</strong></p> <p>Industrial Records:<strong> </strong><a href="http://www.throbbing-gristle.com/industrialrecords/">http://www.throbbing-gristle.com/industrialrecords/</a><br>Snatch Tapes/Philip Sanderson: <a href="https://snatchtapes.bandcamp.com/">https://snatchtapes.bandcamp.com/</a></p> <p><strong>Available from Vinyl On Demand:<br></strong>Funeral Danceparty 'A Celebration of iDEATH' Recordings 1979-82 (2Lp/7inch)<br><a href="https://vod-records.com/-1-18-500.htm">https://vod-records.com/-1-18-500.htm</a><br><br>Val Denham Box Set incl Silverstar Amoeba, Counterdance and Death & Beauty Foundation<br><a href="https://vod-records.com/-1-18-749.htm">https://vod-records.com/-1-18-749.htm</a></p> <p><strong>FIND US</strong> <br><a href="https://cassetteculturepodcast.com/">https://cassetteculturepodcast.com</a></p> <p><strong>SUPPORTERS</strong> <br>Help us keep Cassette Culture alive! This podcast is enabled by generous supporters who contribute toward the costs of researching, producing and publishing each episode. You can become one of them at: <a href="https://cassetteculturepodcast.bandcamp.com/subscribe">https://cassetteculturepodcast.bandcamp.com/subscribe</a></p><p><a href="https://cassetteculturepodcast.bandcamp.com/subscribe" rel="payment">Help keep Cassette Culture alive - Become a Supporter: https://cassetteculturepodcast.bandcamp.com/subscribe</a></p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>
April 5, 2026
No Words, No Titles, No Meaning - The World Of Alien Brains
<p>The strange, uncompromising world of <strong>Alien Brains</strong>, the project led by <strong>Nigel Jacklin </strong>that helped define the outer edges of the early 1980s DIY cassette underground. Emerging from a school science lab, inspired by <strong>John Cage</strong> and nurtured by the fledgling cassette network, Alien Brains rejected conventional song structures in favour of pure spontaneity, raw improvisation and a deliberate embrace of failure as an artistic possibility.</p> <p>The <strong>DIY cassette scene of 1979</strong>, with its “it's easy, cheap, go and do it” ethos, provided the perfect outlet for these early recordings. <strong>Mark Lancaster </strong>of <strong>The Instant Automatons </strong>and <strong>Deleted Records </strong>recalls encountering Nigel, playing an early gig with him at his school, and releasing the first Alien Brains cassette <strong>“Menial Disorders”</strong>.</p> <p>The story takes a notorious turn into the heart of the British public school system. As head of the Rock Society at <strong>Oundle School</strong>, Nigel invites <strong>Throbbing Gristle</strong> and <strong>Monte Cazazza</strong> to perform in the main hall, a collision of avant-garde industrial noise and traditional boarding school culture. We find a recording of Cosey Fanni Tutti sharing her memories of the shock induced by the performance - to teachers and pupils alike. For some it was an outrage; for others, a transformative experience. The concert recordings were released by <strong>Industrial Records</strong> on VHS and cassette tape.</p> <p><strong>Richard Rupenus</strong> of <strong>the New Blockaders </strong>recalls finding Deleted Records via an advert in the DIY Corner column of the music paper Sounds, ordering the first Alien Brains release and eventually joining the group. He describes the strange, semi-chaotic Alien Brains performance at <strong>The Basement</strong> in Newcastle in 1982, where the band added another layer to the experience by introducing pungent smells into the venue’s heating system.</p> <p>Nigel picks up the thread to talk about working with non-musicians such as <strong>Neil Purvis</strong>, echoing John Cage’s belief that people without formal training can be freer of inherited constraints. He describes recordings made in unlikely spaces – a disused Second World War water tower, an out-of-tune piano in a Women’s Institute hut – and a string of performances, including a sparsely attended but historically rich show at <strong>Centro Iberico</strong> on Harrow Road in London, a squatted former school where Throbbing Gristle and Whitehouse had previously played. An excerpt from this performance would later appear on the <strong>“British Interiors”</strong> cassette, with members of <strong>Nurse With Wound</strong> among the few in the audience that night.</p> <p><strong>Philip Sanderson</strong> of <strong>Storm Bugs</strong> and <strong>Snatch Tapes</strong>, recalls habits in the pre-internet era when people simply turned up at your house if they’d found your address on a tape insert. He remembers Nigel arriving at his place and joining in impromptu recording sessions that turned everyday spaces and objects – old school buildings, gas pipes, scraping furniture – into sound sources, a UK parallel to the kind of improvised noise later associated with acts like The New Blockaders.</p> <p>The network kept widening. A chance meeting at <strong>Rough Trade</strong> in London connected Nigel with the Dutch scene and led to a New Year's Eve concert in Amsterdam — the biggest Alien Brains ever played. Bendle of <strong>The Door and the Window</strong> became a regular collaborator, the two of them hanging microphones out of windows to capture street conversations, feeding urban collage into the Alien Brains machine.</p> <p>By the 1985, it was over. A final performance at the Architectural Association — a mess of equipment, wires and confusion for someone's degree show — Nigel takes a taxi home and that was the end of Alien Brains.</p> <p> </p> <p>Hosted by Martin Franklin. <br>Theme music "This Is Concrete" by The Happy Citizen.</p> <p><strong>IN THIS EPISODE</strong><strong></strong></p> <p><strong>THANKS</strong><br>We have benefited from the extensive knowledge of Richard Rupenus for many elements in this episode. Including sourcing of the recording of the message left by Nigel on the Industrial Records telephone answering machine in 1980.</p> <p><strong>VOICES<br></strong>Martin Franklin<br>Mark Lancaster <br>Philip Sanderson <br>Bendle <br><br>Cosey Fanni Tutti & Chris Carter, recorded at Rough Trade East in conversation with Luke Turner of The Quietus.<br><br>Nigel Jacklin, read by Robert Hayes.<br>Richard Rupenus, read by Tim Nice.</p> <p><strong>MUSIC</strong><br>Alien Brains, "Blatantly Nihilist" (Fashionable Trousers 1980)<br>Alien Brains "Menial Disorders" (Deleted Records 1980) <br>"The Preparation For The Corruption Ov Oundle Public School " Nigel Jacklin answer machine message, 23 Drifts to Guestling (Iham Productions) <br>Throbbing Gristle at Oundle School (Industrial Records, VHS) <br>Alien Brains "Live at the Basement "(Aeon/VLZ Productions) <br>"Song" Nigel Jacklin, Snatch 3 (Snatch Tapes) <br>Alien Brains "British Interiors" (self-released) <br>Alien Brains "Der Blaunk Tepes" (self-released) <br>Verdansgang "And It's There" (ADN Tapes)</p> <p>The excellent Alien Brains box set "It's All History Now - Tape Works 1979-1985" is released on Vinyl On Demand (Cat. VOD123)<br>(<a href="https://www.vod-records.com/-1-18-471.htm">www.vod-records.com/-1-18-471.htm</a>)</p> <p><strong>FIND US</strong> <br><a href="https://cassetteculturepodcast.com/">https://cassetteculturepodcast.com</a></p> <p><strong>SUPPORTERS</strong> <br>Help us keep Cassette Culture alive! This podcast is enabled by generous supporters who contribute toward the costs of researching, producing and publishing each episode. You can become one of them at: <a href="https://cassetteculturepodcast.bandcamp.com/subscribe">https://cassetteculturepodcast.bandcamp.com/subscribe</a></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p>Cassette Culture is produced by Martin Franklin for East Coast Studio (<a href="https://eastcoaststudio.com.au/">https://eastcoaststudio.com.au</a>)</p><p><a href="https://cassetteculturepodcast.bandcamp.com/subscribe" rel="payment">Help keep Cassette Culture alive - Become a Supporter: https://cassetteculturepodcast.bandcamp.com/subscribe</a></p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>
27 total episodes available
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Colin Potter
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Jerry Kranitz
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Mark Lancaster
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Phillip Sanderson
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Geert-Jan Hobijn
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Joshua James Amberson
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D Blake Werts
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Martin Franklin
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Richard Johnson
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- What is Cassette Culture?
<p><strong>The stories of the global underground movement that shaped experimental music and culture, told by the artists that were there…</strong></p> <p>For two decades during the '80's and '90's, the international mail system fostered a network of underground artists, exchanging cassette tapes of music and homemade artwork – all under the radar of mainstream media. Taking the DIY message of Punk as a jumping off point, we travel through the network to find the creators of the fanzines, the music, the labels and events.</p> - How often does this podcast release new episodes?
This podcast updates daily.
- Where can I listen to this podcast?
This podcast is available on 4 platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more. You can also use the RSS feed directly.
- Does this podcast accept guests?
Yes, this podcast regularly features guests.
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