I came across this tape at an estate sale and thought the art would be fun for a mixtape. The owner gave it to me for free, as I imagine he was surprised anyone wanted it in the first place. After popping it in my cassette deck and hearing a narration vocal for a guided tour of Washington DC, I decided to digitize the audio to use as transition and narration for a mixtape. This is TapeWalks.

Usually when I make a tape, there is some theme or limiting factor to prevent me from spiraling about which songs should go on it. I thought about limiting this mix to songs that came out pre-1987 (the date the cassette was made), I thought about using walking music as a theme, I thought about only including artists from DC. Ultimately, I decided a clean slate would be the most fun, letting the narration guide which songs were chosen. Having a speaking transition between songs allowed me to have some drastic shifts in tone or genre from song to song without them feeling too jarring.

To fit the runtime and transitions, I had to splice and truncate many of the songs. This felt a bit sacrilegious, but became a challenge in itself to toe the line of doing it tastefully. Playing some songs for less than the full runtime made parts feel like I was scoring a film, or some condense version of that.

Songs used:

Side A

  • The first 25 seconds of Accompanied by a Blazing Solo by Cities Aviv

  • 104 Degrees by Slaughter Beach, Dog

  • Snippet of 1969 by Boards of Canada

  • Gun by Gil Scott-Heron

  • LEAVING HELL by R.A.P. Ferreira

  • SHE SUBMITS WITH SO MUCH DOMINANCE by _BY.ALEXANDER

  • Não quero mais by Don Beto

  • One Day You’ll Lie Here But Everything Will by Gwenifer Raymond

  • My New House by The Fall

  • Nous ne pourrons plus dormir by Brigitte Fontaine & Areski Belkacem

  • Cold Paris Vague by mark william lewis

  • Snippet of Millyrock by Standing On The Corner from Side X (20:39-21:00)

  • This Old House by Against All Logic

Side B

  • The Long Bright Dark by Patrick Shiroishi

  • ゴーゴースチーム by betcover!!

  • Love On The Rocks by Lama

  • Carry Me Home by ZekeUltra

  • Song to Keep You Company - Live at the BBC by Bridget St John

  • Edit and outro of My Life in Art by Mojave 3

  • Announcement - Live by Townes Van Zandt

  • Merchandise - Washington DC 09/03/87_FLS0001 - Live by Fugazi

  • Haunted House on Zillow by The Garden

  • Bride of Africa by The Scorpions, Saif Abu Bakr, Osman Zeeto

  • Eggshells by Dehd

  • Last Train Home by Pat Methany Group