Vinyl records may not be the most convenient way to listen to music, but I am convinced they are the best way to listen to music. I am more intentional about what I want to listen to, and I sit down in front of the speakers and listen. I love looking at the cover art, and reading the liner notes. Sure, I stream music in the kitchen while cooking and listen in the car, but it's just not the same. I also like the process of creating a vinyl...

Over the weekend, I stumbled on the new single and video “Apocalypse” by Porcelain and noticed that it was produced, recorded, and mixed by Tape Op contributor Scott Evans. The song sounds awesome; big, heavy, and riff driven. Scott did some skillful work capturing it. Guitar, bass, and drum sounds are all super solid, but not at all stock sounding. Check out the video for "Apocalypse" below.

I reached out to Scott to find out more about...

Jonathan Meiburg is busy person. He’s an author and musician who has written for Tape Op, and who we interviewed in issue #148 on his work with his group Loma. Meiburg is also the principal songwriter in Shearwater along with Emily Lee and Dan Duszynski. Dan is also in Loma, and they have a new LP, The New World, out July 31st.

Much of the album reflects Jonathan’s experiences on an ocean voyage to Antarctica aboard Expedition PS152 in December of...

Laura Veirs has a new LP, Temple Songs, coming out August 14th. Here's a video on the making of the album, the first she has recorded on her own.

Here's a video for the song "Pulse" for a taste of the awesome songs and sounds.

And look for an interview with her in Tape Op soon!

Check out the new song, “1+1=0”, and fun video from South Korean artist Kim Jimin, who records as Meaningful Stone. The track is a collaboration with producer Melina Duterte, aka Jay Som, and the video is a fun peek at Kim’s trip to Los Angeles and a behind the scenes look at Melina’s home studio setup. 

The song is a catchy, dreamy, pop song with chiming guitars and a great shuffle beat. 

Look for a full interview with Melina in a fall issue...

Nashville based artist Hannah Cole has a new LP, Switchbacks, out September 4th, and has just released the track “MMA”, and the video to go along with it. The track has loud drums, and noisy, sludgy guitars, with Cole’s catchy vocals on top of it all. Hannah and her producer and engineering collaborator, Josef Kuhn, played almost all the instruments on the record and recorded it in their home studio. 

Sonny DiPerri [Tape Op#129] (who has been...

Andrew Sa, in and of himself, is an interesting artist, his talents shaped by his childhood performances at his mother’s karaoke joint then honed through relationships forged in the Chicago music scene as a young adult, all culminating in his debut full-length album American Rough due out June 26th on Bloodshot Records. Add to this that said album incorporates the influences of Mount Moriah alum and revered singer-songwriter H.C. McEntire as well as...

If I was forced to write four word review of Jack White's new album, Frozen Charlotte, it would go like this: Heavy, grooving, fuzzy, classic.

Jack White [Tape Op#82] has a knack for keeping music simple and boiled down to the basics. Heavy riffs, fat grooves, headbanging tempos, and great tones. Frozen Charlotte delivers all of the above from start to finish. It sounds like just what it is; a tight band captured live. There are wisps of The...

We interviewed Bryce Gonzales in Tape Op#165 and did a deep dive into his technique and handmade tube gear he was using to record live jazz records to 1/4” stereo tape at the Los Angeles, CA venue ETA. 

ETA has sadly shuttered but Bryce has continued to record jazz artists around LA with his trusty stereo Nagra tape machine and custom one-of-a-kind tube mixer. 

In May, the Jeff Parker ETA IVtet released Happy Today that Bryce recorded at the...

We interviewed Emily A. Sprague in Tape Op#171 and her 2025 LP Cloud Time landed on our year end best of list more than once. If you’ve been following Emily’s music then you probably already know that she is the primary songwriter and vocalist for the band Florist, and that she also releases ambient instrumental music under her own name. Now with her new LP, Cyano, due out October 2nd, she is singing on ambient adjacent tracks for the first...

With online shopping being the norm for most of us, it's easy to forget that knowledgeable salespeople exist in the pro audio industry. Meanwhile, our recording rigs are composed of computers, interfaces, and software that interoperate using a dizzying array of technologies and protocols with cryptic names and acronyms. I had several detailed discussions recently with engineer Phillip Smith (Historic RCA Studio A in Nashville) about the...

In recent months, I did a bunch of mixing, including: An album for a hypnotic electronic duo, songs for a psychedelic band from Mexico, tracks for a local queer country singer, and a full record for a catchy punk band from Toronto. I was lucky to produce/engineer/mix a song for a kick-ass group described as "hardcore-adjacent" that have been on tour all over the U.S. I spent a day producing a song with a loveable artist with Down syndrome....