Dusting off the Tape Collection

I have a crate of cassette tapes of all kinds. Mix tapes I made so I didn't have to carry around a ton of other tapes. Recordings of old radio shows I did (which are basically the same as a mixtape only with annoying radio chatter every couple of songs). Albums I bought that I have since replaced on CD and never discarded. Then there are those tapes that I got while working in college; the demo tape. Demo tapes used to flood into the station and then later to the label I worked at. Every time I went to to a club I would walk out with a demo tape. Most were shoddily made home recordings that soon were taped over. Some were better produced and stuck around to be listened to more than once. On rare occasions the tape made it's way to a show and a song lived on in mixtape nirvana. Then there was MARKET.

I got a tip from a friend when I went to New York for a convention to go see this unsigned band play. At the time I was in radio so I was far more interested in seeing bigger bands, but that night had a unique feel and so I ventured to this dingy old club to see this band play. Maybe it was the consumption of alcohol or the fact that I spent a good portion of the night chatting up a nice young girl from a radio station in New Jersey, but something about the band's music has always led to an intense response to it even years later. It is pretty run of the mill trip hop (a la PORTISHEAD but dancier) but I immediately procured their demo and have ever since treasured it.

A couple of years later they were signed to INTERSCOPE so I waited in anticipation for their album but it never came. One of their songs from the tape made it to a compilation but that was it. Then they disappeared. Did they break up recording the album? Did the label drop them when everyone moved away from Trip Hop? I can't even Google search the band members because the tape has no names on it. All I have is five songs to remember them by. And maybe that's the way it's supposed to be.

(mp3) Market -- Kawasaki

(mp3) Market -- Island

(mp3) Market -- Rip

(mp3) Market -- Big Sound

(mp3) Market -- Madstore

p.s. Big thanks to the wife for the purchase of a system that allows tape and record conversion to CD then to MP3. Expect more out of date and unusual stuff as I get time to rip it.