Cassette Culture28 Aug 2025

Checkpoint Staalplaat: Revisiting Radical Sound, with Geert-jan Hobijn

From vinyl to cassettes and the occasional... flexi-postcard! Geert-Jan Hobijn reflects on Staalplaat’s origins as a cassette label, and some current releases.

In this special interim episode of Cassette Culture, Martin Franklin and Jerry Kranitz speak with Geert-Jan Hobijn, the legendary founder of Staalplaat - the experimental music label that began in an Amsterdam squat in 1982 and went on to define an era of radical sound and design.

We focus on some current activities publishing unreleased Muslimgauze recordings, reissuing classics from the Korm Plastics label - and dreaming up outlandish packaging ideas (including a cassette release that came with a pair of custom-designed socks).

The conversation also touches on the challenges and joys of running a label across decades, the crossover between Staalplaat’s releases and Geert-Jan’s own Staalplaat Sound System installation work, and the philosophy of making music and art available in ways that resist the digital mainstream.

Hosted by Martin Franklin & Jerry Kranitz.
Theme music “This Is Concrete” by The Happy Citizen/"Hesatative" Jack Hertz

DISCOVER THE VIDEO
You can find videos of cassettes, artefacts and unboxings from the cassette underground on our YouTube channel: youtube.com/@CassetteCulturePodcast

MUSIC
"Headphonics (VPRO Version)" Ryoji Ikeda, Mort Aux Vaches (Staalplaat, 2020)
"Zealot" Muslimgauze (flexi-postcard 2025)
"A1" Muslimgauze, Tape 13 (cassette 2025)
"Live At The Clocktower, New York City (27 April 89)" Arcane Device, SIX (Korm Plastics D, cassette 2025)

LINKS
Staalplaat Label
https://staalplaatlabel.bandcamp.com/

Muslimgauze
https://muslimgauze.bandcamp.com/

Korm Plastics D
https://kormplasticsd.bandcamp.com/

Cassette Culture is produced by Martin Franklin for East Coast Studio (https://eastcoaststudio.com.au)

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