THE GOLDEN AGE OF WIRELESS by Thomas Dolby
The Golden Age of Wireless: album by Thomas Dolby released in 1982. The tape cassette was a 1983 release (see the fine print on the J-cover).
In 1983 tape cassettes dominated the world as the most popular music media outselling vinyl records and relegating the 8 track to the bargain bin as a has-been relic.
The Golden Age of Wireless's album cover looks like a photograph of a magazine cover. Look closely and you see reflections on it which makes me think it was photographed behind glass. In the reflections I see a familiar looking statue (bust) on the right, and on the left appears to be a man in a wheel chair pushed by a nurse. It is so much fun to inspect album cover art when listening to the music.
The front face of a standard tape case is only 4" by 2.75", considerably smaller than the LP vinyl record 12 inches (square). It is interesting how albums on tape chose to shrunk the album art down to fit the square art design completely in to the rectangular tape case. Some tape designs chose to do a bit of redesign making the most prominent features of the art work larger, but not this particular album.
The album art of a tape cassette is printed on a J-card, sometimes called the tape jacket, the paper sleeve that is designed to fit inside the tape cassette case. Very often these j-cards folded out for several pages, where you could find the song lyrics, band photos, art works, and or just some random information. This Thomas Dolby cassette sadly has very little to offer on the inside.
The inside The Golden Age of Wireless simply states “This tape is mastered to Dolby ”B" standards for noise reduction. Decrease treble response when playing on non-Dolbyized equipment."
Dolby is a noise reduction technology in 1968 for cassette tape recordings. Tape cassette was developed in 1963, but was very noisy, and noise reduction was an expensive processes that required specialized equipment in both the recording process (adding hiss noise) and in the playback equipment that removed the hiss, which is a technological wonder that makes a recording of the desired sound (music) louder and reduced the sound of the noise inherent in magnetic tape.
Thomas Dolby is not related to Dolby labs the innovators of noise reduction. His family name is Robertson, adopting Dolby as a stage name because of its affiliation with music technology.
There is something pleasing to the senses in that noise reduction, the left over hiss. Some describe it as tape warmth, or tape saturation, and it is not unpleasant, nor does it detract from enjoying the music.
Tapes are making a comeback at this time in a small circle of enthusiasts It is a cheap way for garage bands and home studio artists to get merchandise into the hands of fans. There are many design companies on the web who specialize templates for the printed J-cards. Some even will create posters when completely unfolded. The homemade look, the mix tape look I find especially charming.
A final note of research: Many tapes I researched showed a grid of seemingly random colored boxes. One article suggests it is an actual code to decipher. Look at New Order,
https://wharferj.wordpress.com/2011/04/19/peter-saville-new-order-colour-code/
Another source of information (a fan forum) suggests a more common practice of using the grid of colored boxes as a color template for the colors that are used in printing the album art.
Please leave any comments. I would love to check out any of your favorite old album cover designs, and I wonder what your thoughts are on tape cassette comeback, or passing fad?
