This Musician Scratches Cassette Tapes Like Vinyl

Turntablism as a modern art form and musical practice has its roots within hip hop and hip hop culture of the late 1970s. Scratching was already widespread within hip hop by DJs and producers by the time turntablists started to appear.

Kool DJ Herc, Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash are widely credited for having cemented the now established role of DJ as hip hop's foremost instrumentalist. Kool Herc's invention of break-beat DJing is generally regarded as the foundational development in hip hop history, as it gave rise to all other elements of the genre. His influence on the concept of "DJ as turntablist" is equally profound.

These early pioneers cemented the fundamental practice that would later become the emerging turntablist art form. Scratching would during the 1980s become a staple of hip hop music, being used by producers and DJs on records and in live shows. By the end of the 1980s it was very common to hear scratching on a record, generally as part of the chorus of a track or within its production.

Moving forward to today, we have some innovators innovating the scene!

A young artist from French musician Alexis Malbert, known as TAPERTRONIC, has been molding music since the late 90's, messing around with different mediums like vinyl, CD, tape and other electronics, creating new ways to "circuit bend" to get new and organic sounds. He has been showing his skills all around Europe by doing workshops and live venues.

Cassette tapes turned out to be the perfect thing for him to focus his attention on. Malbert said on his website. "It was durring a 1 year stay in Germany, spending whole nights in the workshop to rewinded tapes that the idea of Scratchette was appeared. A sudden excitement occurred, it was absolutely necessary to develop the concept!”

After the Inspiration hit him like a slippery fish, he grabbed his Dremel tool, deconstructed some tapes and made the scratchette!

Since then, Malbert has developed the Scratchette into a cassette tape system of modular circuit bending. This isn’t just an experiment in sonic output, but also in the systems that produce it. Usually circuit bending is done within a cohesive system, whereas Malbert has developed a modular mix and match setup for producing various effects. The first video above is like some weird alter-dimensional 80s spin off of a Bop-It commercial, but with music that’s actually fun. (The singer is saying “I change the cassette,” in French, by the way.) The tone of the scratch also strikes my ears a bit differently than the scratch of a vinyl — the demos below remind me of a feisty droid.

“Today the analogic reached an agreement with the digital, stepping across the border of the old debate that opposed these. It is essential, even vital, to multiply the tools needed to creation if we want to attract curiosity. The tape has good days ahead, but in another form!”

Resources:

http://www.alexismalbert.com/tapetronic-all/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scratching

#music #tech #gear