Tapes—Angus MacLise

Angus MacLise, the first drummer for the Velvet Underground, was a poet, composer, and a member of The Theatre of Eternal Music alongside La Monte Young.

Tapes is a new release by Japan-based Art Into Life. This boxed set is a reissue of a 3-cassette compilation first produced by Pleasure Editions in 2015, which was limited to only 100 copies. The Japanese version of Tapes comes on the collectible compact disc format and a digital download package will also be emailed upon purchase.

 This comprehensive 3-CD boxed set is over three hours in length and includes session recordings with Tony Conrad and William Breeze (of Coil, Current 93, and Psychic TV), mystical recordings from the filming of Ira Cohen's "The Invasion of Thunderbolt Pagoda" (1968), shortwave experiments, and sounds of Tibetan Buddhist monks recorded by MacLise. The boxed set is accompanied by a miniature poster and track lists, and each CD has a paper sleeve that reproduces the original cassette card artwork.

Tapes features excerpts from the archives of the Angus MacLise Papers, which are held at Columbia University Library. The archives contain over 100 hours of reel-to-reel tape recordings of live improvised music, theatrical performances, and sound experiments created by MacLise and his associates during the 1960s and 1970s. MacLise produced the original recordings in his own unique style, characterized by rough and peculiar editing.

The release is curated and sequenced by Will Cameron, Mark Iosifescu, Ben Kudler, and Ben Swift. Jim O'Rourke completed a new sound restoration and mastering of the recordings in 2023. This official release is authorized by DREAMWEAPON New York, a project of the MacLise Family Estate.