By Martyna Turczynowicz
What’s old is new again. Just ask Taylor Burgess, founder of BrainWave Tapes, a cassette label that started in 2014.
Why tapes? “They are really cheap and easy to produce. I can get them and turn them around quickly to the immediate community,” Burgess explains of his chosen medium. While there are some, who Burgess says “turn up their lip and swear off cassettes and say it’s the most inferior medium they’ve ever heard,” there are also those who “listen to tapes and would have a tape player rather than a CD player, or who don’t even have a turntable for that matter.”
Brain Wave’s first release was a collaboration with The Ineffable. Burgess calls The Ineffable an enigma, which is fair, because the rural Manitoba-based band wishes to remain anonymous at all costs. They reached out to Burgess when he was writing for Stylus and asked him to help put their music out. “They said they needed my help to put their music out. It was very strange, but their music was so good that I just had to help them.” Right now, Burgess says he acts as a mouthpiece for the band, because of The Ineffable’s request for anonymity. While he admits that promoting a band that wishes to remain anonymous can be difficult, it’s something he’s willing to do because of the caliber of their music.
Alongside The Ineffable, Burgess has also worked with Savant Flaneur. Savant Flaneur is made up of Nathan Krahn of Eagle Lake Owls and Scott Leroux, who plays in the Uncanny Valley Girls among other musical projects. Both musicians, Burgess says, are very prolific and have a lot of musical experience. He describes Savant Flaneur as “really cerebral; one of the key things I wanted the label to have was cerebral music, something that was like a headphone experience or an experience in itself.”
Aside from Savant Flaneur and The Ineffable, there is another recording in the works with Brainwave – a split single with locals Black Cloud and Palm Trees. Burgess is excited about it. “It’ll be really good. An immersive, cerebral experience that can really be enjoyed when you’re isolated and on your own.” That release, Burgess says, is set for late June or early July.
Ultimately, Brain Wave Tapes is a way of getting musicians exposure. “Brain Wave is this umbrella that people can start to look towards and find other like-minded artists. I want whoever is working on music in their bedroom, or whatever, and are weirded out by the music or by [the idea of] sharing it.” Burgess hopes that those people would be comfortable sharing their music with him.
“I would definitely like to promote it and spread this music to a larger audience. I’m not hoping for any sort of huge fame. I hope my artists can get recognition but I mean, given the kind of esoteric nature of their music, I don’t have these illusions of grandeur. I just hope for a small collection of ‘weirdos,’ for lack of a better term, to be a family of sorts.”
The Palm Trees/Black Cloud split cassette will be released on July 2 at the Handsome Daughter and on July 17 at the Good Will.