At any given party or get-together we've all been asked "What's your favorite album?" For me it's an impossible question, but honestly, if I truly had to choose ten records to take to the grave with me as a document of who I was as a human, two of them would be Spirit of Eden and Laughing Stock by...

When I first heard about the Resonator Awards in 2024, I had recently interviewed artist/producer SASAMI [Tape Op#157] and production great Jennifer DeCilveo [#161] for Tape Op (the former had signed on to perform, the latter was to receive the All-Star Award), and I was simultaneously thrilled to learn of its existence and...

I’ve been following Moby for several decades now as he’s moved between different styles and phases of his career. I can’t say I love everything he’s done, but I really do like quite a bit of it. 1999’s Play was his fifth album and a huge commercial success, but 1995’s Everything Is Wrong and Animal Rights from 1996 are my...

England's post-punk duo Sleaford Mods, who we interviewed for Ep. 82 of the Tape Op Podcast, are perhaps the most punk band I have heard in years. Frontman Jason Williamson's lyrics and delivery are a brutally honest assessment of the state of the world; profanity laced, and presented dry as a bone and in your face....

Larry Crane, editor/founder

1. Emily A. Sprague
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My partner at Tape Op, John Baccigaluppi, turned me onto Emily A. Sprague's music and he interviewed her for Tape Op #171. Late night/early morning looping dreamscapes with so many cool bits and textures. If you like Brian Eno [#85] at his spaciest or Steve Roach...

As any longtime reader of Tape Op will know, I've been a big Pink Floyd fan since I first heard The Wall as a teenager in 1979. The Wall was an amazing studio achievement and a commercial success, but it was their 1975 release, Wish You Were Here, that soon became my favorite. The initial CD version was a crap mastering...

Since his death in the summer of 2021, there seems to have been a steady stream of Lee "Scratch" Perry [who I interviewed inTape Op#136] releases. These are largely compilations, and it's hard to know if they have been approved by his estate or not. 

The latest is Lee "Scratch" Perry presents:Black...

Miles Davis' Kind of Blue is, and will forever be in my favorite albums of all time. It was the album that introduced me to jazz, modal music, the concept of space in music, great recordings, and more than anything, the idea that such a distinct feeling and vibe could be transmitted from musicians in a room, to a fixed...

At the end of December, Marsha Vdovin, who has been working with Tape Op for 14 years, is moving on and leaving the Tape Op team. We’re sad to see her go, but we’re happy that she’s chosen to pursue her art full-time. Marsha has been really great to work with, and I always enjoyed the conversations we had about music and the...

Maybe I read it on the Tape Op Message Board, or maybe someone told me this tale, but it was many years ago: The band books studio time, shows up, sets up, runs through a take of their first song, and then asks the engineer, “How did that sound to you?” His reply, “It’s on tape.” 

I was mixing an album for a punk band....

David Byrne and Brian Eno famously collaborated on 1981’s seminal My Life in the Bush of Ghosts LP, which was recorded before Eno produced the Talking Heads' classic LP Remain In Light that came out in 1980. Listen to both records in the order they were recorded, and you can hear the progression of ideas from ...Ghosts...

As a child of Nigerian immigrants, a queer Black person, and a proud advocate for social change, Joy Oladokun has been combating her “constant Little Sister Syndrome” to become a musical force in her adopted home of Nashville, Tennessee. With five studio albums to her name, including 2021’s in defense of my own happiness and...