Keith Utech, founder of Milwaukee Cassette Works
The cassette is in many ways the bastard child of music formats. The perception has mostly been that it lacks the warmth of vinyl and the fidelity of compact discs. It had its day in the 1980s and early 1990s, inspiring many a mixtape, then quickly faded as content consumption went digital. But in certain niche indie and DIY circles, the cassette tape held sway long past its predicted death. Artists like Boards of Canada bounced recordings on and off 4-track cassette recorders to give their songs nostalgic grain, while some time in the late 2000s cassette releases by experimental bands started popping up at record stores. Even major indie labels like Warp Records are once again offering their artists’ releases on cassette.
Here in Milwaukee, cassette labels have emerged from the shadows. With music listeners on the whole less inclined to purchase their music at all, much less on cassette, the phenomenon almost defies logic. Milwaukee Cassette Works, an offshoot of the record label Utech Records, is one of the defiant champions of the cassette.
Created by Keith Utech, Milwaukee Cassette Works is a cassette duplication and printing service that handles complete packages with tapes, cases, and J-cards (the paper cards inserted into a plastic cassette case).
While Utech has been releasing independent music—much of it on cassettes—for the last 13 years, he established Milwaukee Cassette Works only a year and a half ago to better develop and distribute the label’s cassette releases. Under Milwaukee Cassette Works, Utech provides a private imprint service for artists he works with on the Utech label, as well as a tape duplication service for other labels and artists. And if an artist or label needs design assistance for projects, he is happy to offer it.
Utech says that his desire to launch a cassette tape label grew out of his background in graphic design. “The visual impact is a crucial part of Utech Records releases,” he says. “Album art, posters and gatefold jackets from the 1970s instilled in me a love for the visual medium and the magic that’s tied up in it. It made me think about packaging and ultimately became a path that lead me to become a graphic designer.”
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Initially, Utech Records joined the ranks of CD-R labels, of which there were a multitude. For 18 months, he released free jazz and noise CD-Rs. From there, Utech moved on to CD, cassettes and eventually vinyl releases. In those first two years as a label head, Utech put together 50 releases, while establishing Utech Records as an experimental label of note.
To start the record label, Utech charged $500 to a credit card and, as he says, never looked back. The focus was on simple design and presentation, all of it done by hand. Editions ranged from 50 to 150 releases.
“I always felt like a label could represent a bigger idea—an artistic venture in and of itself,” Utech notes. “I’ve been running the label for 13 years building on the foundation I cemented in those first 18 months. I present music in the most engaging way possible.”
In April, Utech Records released Sustain, a collaborative LP and cassette from French doom metal band Chaos Echoes and Swedish free-jazz saxophone player Mats Gustafsson. He also released a 7-inch vinyl record by Ocre, the duo of Stefan Thanneur (bassist of Chaos Echoes) and Michel Langevin of the Canadian heavy metal band Voivod.
Utech is currently working on cassette releases for experimental electronic artist Anji Cheung and Oslo-based noise punk band MoE with Lasse Marhaug, as well as a 7”-lathe cut vinyl release for the Toronto-based ambient project UXVAE. He is also planning special vinyl and cassette releases for Utech Records’ 15th anniversary in 2019.
Like most people who grew up in the 1980s, cassettes were a huge part of Utech’s personal musical landscape. As a kid, Utech and his friends created their own homemade covers for their cassette tapes, imagining various creative ways of visually representing their favorite music. In a sense, that is still how Utech and Milwaukee Cassette Works operate.
“It’s fun and an inexpensive way to release music,” says Utech. “When I was 13, I joined one of those music clubs where you get a bunch of cassettes for a penny. One of those tapes was Black Sabbath Mob Rules. I’ve played that cassette on and off for the last 30 years until it recently died. Now it sits on a shelf as a reminder of the point in time that essentially lead me to where I am now.”
