For those familiar with Morris Kolontyrsky’s searing guitar work in the progressive death metal group Blood Incantation, his debut solo album Origination may cause a double take. But a closer look reveals an ongoing infatuation with ambient music, including his Fish Season project with fellow cosmonaut Paul Reidl [Tape Op#164]. After band practice one night, the duo improvised a memorable session in their SI-169 studiokompound, released as Fish II by...

I think I’d noticed Brad Cook’s name in the credits of Bon Iver records, but took more notice when I interviewed BJ Burton for Tape Op#137 and he mentioned working with him on the Bon Iver LPs. When he was interviewed by Jacob Paul Nielsen for Tape Op #156 , I started to pay close attention to records that I'd see his name on and have since become a big fan of his production work. He’s decades into his career now, and has had a hand in some of...

The Chicago-based band, Brigitte Calls Me Baby, has just released Irreversible, produced by Yves Rothman and Lawrence Rothman [Tape Op#155]. The pairing showcases the premium placed on songwriting and arrangement. Top to bottom, Irreversible is a very enjoyable collection of well-written songs that were meticulously recorded and mixed at Lawrence's home studio in Los Angeles. The album leans heavily on '80s New Wave references like The...

Out on tour with Wednesday right now, and ahead of tour dates throughout 2026 with Touché Amoré and Ovlov (not to mention two nights in September with Foo Fighters and Queens of the Stone Age), Gouge Away have released a new single, “Figurine”, their debut on Run For Cover Records. What makes this news very Tape Op is that the band tracked “Figurine” last month at Portland’s Jackpot! Recording Studio with Tape Op's editor/founder Larry Crane...

Having familiarized myself with the Jason P. Woodbury oeuvre through the years via his editorial home Aquarium Drunkard (to which I sometimes contribute), his funky A/V project Wastoids, and his guest appearances on podcasts including Bandsplain and my very own Wilco Will Love You, it has been great fun to sort the Easter eggs hidden within his latest album, Jason P. Woodbury & The Nightbird Singing Quartet, releasing March 13th, 2026. Jason’s...

For International Women's Day, I was going to share our collection of articles featuring women in audio. That collection is currently being rebuilt, so I am instead sharing a selection of those articles here to celebrate the women in the pro audio community.

Suzanne Ciani

Heba Kadry

Carol Kaye

Ebonie Smith

Sasami

Piper Payne

Leslie Ann Jones

Jennifer Decilveo

Lenise Bent

Hazel Mills

Jennifer Nulsen

Marta Salogni

Stella Mozgawa

Emily A. Sprague

h.pruz

Gloria...

As a music creator and fan, I am always interested in the transformation from the seed of a song, the demo stage, and the version that was released as the definitive version. It's a peek behind the curtain, and one we as listeners are not privy to enough. The new release from Talking Heads, Tentative Decisions: Demos & Live, is an expansive three disc offering of the band's demos and live versions of songs from their early years. Songs...

For decades, the existence of Fugazi’s Albini Sessions was mostly rumor, bouncing between friends, sometimes as legend and other times as a low-quality bootleg. As the story goes, in 1992, Fugazi, disappointed with the sound of their self-produced Steady Diet of Nothing made their way to Chicago to record with Steve Albini [Tape Op#10, #24, and #87] in his basement studio, taking him up on an offer of free recording time. The energy and camaraderie...

When a life is big, the details that make a person special tend to get washed away in the broad strokes of their success and influence. This has been true of Bob Power [Tape Op #60], one of the most important engineer/producers of his generation. As someone who knew him, I hope to shed some light onto what it was about Bob that made him so successful.

If you don’t know the broad strokes, Bob had his hands on seminal works of hip-hop (A Tribe Called...

It's a good week for new music!

Jacob Collier [Tape Op#151] released Something Heavy, an EP with three versions of "Something Heavy." It straddles the world between a Coldplay ballad and early 2000's Sting, is beautifully recorded, and as usual, is a top notch song with a great arrangement.

Willow released petal rock black. The album has collaborations from Kamasi Washington, George Clinton, and Tune-Yards {Tape Op#88]. The deep...

Maybe I read it on the Tape Op Message Board, or maybe someone told me this tale, but it was many years ago: The band books studio time, shows up, sets up, runs through a take of their first song, and then asks the engineer, “How did that sound to you?” His reply, “It’s on tape.” 

I was mixing an album for a punk band. I always ask who did the recording (and where it was done) when on mix sessions, as I like to do a little research on what went...

I break down boxes pretty much every week. Thankfully, Styrofoam and other plastic-based packaging materials are nowhere near as ubiquitous as they were in the past. But that means studio gear, household items, and even large items like furniture come boxed or wrapped in extra layers of cardboard. I've mentioned before that I use a minimalist Gil-Tek RUK V2 utility knife for normal boxes, but I also carry a thin-and-light Leatherman Skeletool CX...