Cassette Culture9 Jan 2025

Underground 'Zines And The Hunt For Lost Music

The Vital fanzine evolved from hand typed, xeroxed pages to pioneering online distribution, and connected artists from the USA and Europe.

We dive into an interview with Frans de Waard, creator of the Dutch fanzine Vital and the Korm Plastics label to talk about his journey of collaboration in the underground cassette scene. Covering his early zine projects like Nul Nul, growing his label network, work with renowned record store and experimental music label, Staalplaat, and steps into authoring books about experimental music and zines.

Our final segment follows the next steps of Discogs Detective, Tom Gibbs as he travels the UK South Coast to track down members of enigmatic ’80’s improvisors, Omega Ensemble.

Hosted by Martin Franklin & Hudson Graham.

VIDEO
You can find video of some of the fanzines and cassette releases we discuss in this episode on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@CassetteCulturePodcast

Guests:
Frans de Waard (Vital/Korm Plastics)
Tom Gibbs (Infinite Expanse)

Theme Music: "This Is Concrete" The Happy Citizen

Featured Music:

The Haters, “Performance 12 01 1989”, Puinhoop
Blackhumour “Weeds in Barren Soil”, Poetry
John Hudak “The Talk”, Brainbox
Arcane Device “Live at the Clocktower 27 04 1989” Six
Ios Smoulders “Composition Nr121”, Abstract Art
Big City Orchestra “The Smart Thing”, Everyman is a Volume.

All music released on cassette by Korm Plastics (https://www.kormplastics.nl/)

“Piece 2” by the Omega Ensemble, Sil Lim Tao

Links
Vital Weekly (https://www.vitalweekly.net/)
Vital: The Complete Collection book (https://www.kormplastics.nl/vital-the-complete-collection-1987-1995/)

AVAILABLE NOW
Premonitions: Underground Cassette Network 1989-90
14 nocturnal tracks of ambient, tape collage, industrial and improv, now on Bandcamp. https://cassetteculturepodcast.bandcamp.com/album/premonitions-underground-cassette-network-1989-90

Podcast Produced by Martin Franklin/East Coast Studio (http://eastcoaststudio.com.au)

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