SYB3RS3X

a reluctant union of magnetic tape and deejay culture

background

i have had separate interests in both cassette tapes and dance music. somewhere wires crossed and the question (gimmick) lingered :

how and why would one go about performing a cassette tape deejay set ?

cassette tapes and cassette players are obsolete and can easily be thrifted / salvaged

i already had a collection of old dance music on cassette, plus a number of local producers are now releasing their music on tape

subsets of deejay culture already value physical sound storage / manual techniques (vinyl, turntables etc) over its convenient digital alternative (cdj’s)

i value the quality of a djs selection over the quality of their gear. take every thing to its logical extreme. i rescued an extremely cheep 2-channel mixer and set it up with two portable top-loading cassette players. this was aesthetically pleasing / reminiscent of a real turntable set-up

[image of setup here]

modifications and techniques

this is a work in progress. i hope to put some time into it soon

vary cassette playback speed for beat matching

‘touch’ control over cassette gear for beat sync

bmp recognition and visual beat matching aid ???

essay on cassette-tape-deejaying

i want to elaborate and articulate further why this is an interesting intersection. drawing on history of cassette culture : examples of cassettes as a diy distribution, introducing dance music to soviet union, impact of accessible, rewritable sound storage. dj origins in misusing audio equipment, dance musics contribution to mixing , sampling , remixing , producing. my own exploration of modifying hardware for low-fi mixing.

original SYB3RS3X dance releases

i have had little time for experimenting with creating dance music lately although hope to soon.

a rough demo track can be heard here:

watch this space for (self released, cassette tape) debut ep :

SYB3RS3X - LOST TO SWEAT