Literary Tapes

About

Literary Tapes, a temporal anomaly, operated in reverse from 2014 back to 1978, a nod to the cyclical, recursive nature of its own catalog. Emerging from Port Richey, this label found its voice in the folds between spoken word and sound art, a liminal space where the literary and the auditory collide. The label's releases on cassette — a format both anachronistic and enduring — speak to a process-driven commitment to analog media, akin to sculptors molding sound itself into tangible form. With 11 releases, Literary Tapes crafted an interdisciplinary dialogue between poets and musicians, where William S. Burroughs' gravelly incantations on "Call me Burroughs" and "Walters Weekly BBC Interview" unravel like narrative fractals. Brion Gysin's "There is that Word" echoes with the spectral presence of cut-up techniques, while Charles Bukowski's "Hello, it's Good to be back - Hamburg 18.5.1978" captures the raw immediacy of performance art, a moment in time forever looped. The label's sole magazine, "Overview [Mag/Lit]," serves as a manifesto of its ethos: a tactile intersection where literature becomes sound, and sound emerges as literature. Glenn Branca's "Ballettmusik BAD SMELLS" further expands the scope, introducing a sculptural symphony of noise, a testament to the label's openness to genre-defying collaborations. Literary Tapes' curated confluence of voices, from Burroughs and Giorno's joint ventures to the eclecticism of the "Dial-A-Poem-Poets," is a testament to its dedication to the exploratory and the experimental. Each release, a microcosm of the era's avant-garde spirit, continues to resonate in the echo chamber of modern cassette culture.