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Tinfoil Tapes (1996​-​2003)

by Antony Milton

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about

The tracks on this collection were all recorded using the 'tinfoil' method of building up layers of sound by placing metal foil over the erase head on a regular tape recorder. It is an interesting method of composing in that in order to play in sympathy with the underlying sounds one has to remember something of the timing, timbre and pitch of the preceding layer.
The end results are always something of a surprise as one can never be entirely sure just how the tape will react to the saturation and interference patterns of the additional layers.

The first 5 tracks here were recorded in 1996 and comprised one of my very earliest actual releases. In fact I think it was only the second after 'Ash, Feathers and Radios Bark' that I actually made more than a couple of copies of. Around 20 of them were dubbed onto recycled cassingles and dropped around the more adventurous shops in Christchurch. The tracks on the original 'Tinfoil' tape were recorded in a rather grotty flay in Sydenham in Christchurch. Most of my flatmates seemed intent on becoming fully fledged junkies, shooting up in the lounge etc, and as a result I spent most of my time in my tiny room when at home mucking about with my tape recorder and microphones.

The remaining tracks were recorded several years later in a very different domestic situation in Brooklyn, Wellington. My partner and I had a sunny flat there and I had turned one tiny room into a music room. The room was so small that my Hammond organ took up most of the space. The tracks were recorded onto an old tape deck I found on the road outside and they appeared on different A.M releases in 2002 and 2003. I thought it was worth adding these here to further illustrate the joys and potential of this method of recording.

The last track, 'Last Track of the Machine' is so named because at the end of it you can hear the moment when the drive belt of the tape deck suddenly broke during the recording of the final layer. This represented the end of my explorations of the method but if I find another suitable machine one day perhaps I will resurrect the project.

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released June 24, 2022

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Antony Milton New Zealand

Antony Milton is a sound artist based in Masterton, New Zealand. He has been active in the underground and experimental music scenes since the early 1990s. He is also the curator of the PseudoArcana label.

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