BE KIND, REWIND

Not all of the tastiest beats find their way to the mainstream. The superior vinyl format can be a luxury for bands still whipping up melodies in their basements or the back of local dives. For those road warriors, the cassette became the de facto format to spread their musical ideas. Much like the Intergalactic Beets Project, the Xarian Cassette Archive (XCA) set about collecting and preserving these flashes of brilliance that Lord Prosect and his goons unceremoniously burned. Volume I, so far the only collection of salvageable beats, was delivered in secret to the IBP to issue it on vinyl to expand the reach of its artists (the cassette player is as rare as a buhkip stone and twice as expensive). Within this collection, we find the unreleased tunes of undiscovered bands like Krunk & Co., Allergic Reaction, and Fuzz In The Corner. Each song more eclectic than the last, we, as of this moment, cannot confirm the artists' continued existence, for our attempts have been met with security inspections and many clandestine meetings. However, the spirit of the IBP and the XCA will live on, as generations will be able to revel in songs like Be Kind, Rewind, Drive Thru Shooting, and Prehistorica. We hope that Volume II is in our future, but, dear Audionauts, we fear this may be the last we hear of the XCA. Teeming with punk, funk, rock, blues, electronica, and more, Volume I is here to stay and will hopefully rise to the top and burst out of the speakeasies and into the listening organs of the masses.