Mixtape Monday: SPACE

Nearly a year ago, HERC wrote about finding a cache of still-sealed blank cassette tapes, including the highly sought after Limited Edition TDK SA 90.

Today's featured tape on Mixtape Monday is one such tape ensconced inside a curved smooth hard case, simply titled SPACE.  HERC's best guess, based on when the tapes were produced and the age of the tracks included is that the tape was dubbed sometime in 1988.  As noted on the albe in the scan below, he did use Dolby C noise reduction becaase in space, no one can hear you scream.

How many of you noticed the tape's teeny tiny j-card in the open case picture above?  Here's what it looks like unfolded, with the SA 90 flap flipped up, from both sides.  Enlarged to make it equal scale with scan of tape above, which they barely cover:

Space, the final frontier.  What does it have to do with your boy HERC?  He's made no secret of his love for such space-sounding songs as Planet P's "Why Me?" or Billy Thorpe's space-themed albums Children Of The Sun and East Of Eden's Gate.  After listening to this tape this past weekend, HERC can tell you exactly what it is but he'd rather show you.

		SIDE A		44:36
1985		Ascent	Don Dorsey	03:51
1985		Intro - Also Sprach Zarathustra	Erich Kunzel & Cincinnati Pops Orchestra	01:50
1986		The Launch	Boston	02:56
1986		Cool The Engines	Boston	04:23
1987		In Dreams	Pete Bardens	05:32
1982		East Of Eden's Gate	Billy Thorpe	06:20
1979		Walking On The Moon	The Police	05:01
1969		Across The Universe	The Beatles	03:49
1981		Lunatic Fringe	Red Rider	04:23
1982		Sirius	Alan Parsons Project	01:55
1982		Eye In The Sky	Alan Parsons Project	04:36
		SIDE B		44:09
1976		Space Intro	Steve Miller Band	01:15
1976		Fly Like An Eagle	Steve Miller Band	04:43
1977		Come Sail Away	Styx	06:07
1976		Foreplay/Long Time	Boston	07:47
1969		Spirit In The Sky	Norman Greenbaum	04:00
1967		Third Stone From The Sun	Jimi Hendrix Experience	06:44
1979		Children Of The Sun	Billy Thorpe	06:44
1984		Heartbeat City	The Cars	04:30
1986		Theme from the Twilight Zone		00:52
1972		Frankenstein [custom edit]	Edgar Winter Group	01:27

Back in the late Eighties heyday of competitive car audio, the Telarc discs featuring Erich Kunzel & the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra were ubiquitous among the enthusiasts - almost every other system was blasting one such disc or another. The two most popular discs for showing off car stereo systems were Star Tracks and Time Warp, both from 1984. 

The first two tracks from the latter played seamlessly as one and were an excellent means of introducing the full dynamic range of your system.  Those two tracks open HERC's SPACE mixtape.  Then the very space-y "Launch" and "Cool The Engines" sequence from Boston before going into the way, WAY cooler "In Dreams" by Pete Bardens, which until a few minutes ago HERC didn't know existed as a twelve-inch "high velocity mix"  which he know must have.

HERC won the CD above in an in-store contest one night in 1987 at the Wherehouse in Park Mall. (It was like first person to show your local radio station rock card or something like that.) Because of the songs HERC heard on that CD, he bought two more CDs, the discs featured by Pete Bardens and Patrick Moraz.  All three discs are recommended for space music fans.  As are Billy Thorpe's two space-rocking albums Children Of The Sun (1979) and East Of Eden's Gate (1982).  The title tracks of both albums are featured on the mixtape.  The rest of the songs are somewhat obvious (although "Lunatic Fringe" and "Heartbeat City" don't seem to belong in hindsight) and in case you're wondering, the "custom" edit of "Frankenstein" HERC used was the part after the breakdown where the synth comes phasing in at about the 3:16 mark. Once upon a time, we were able to link to specific point within a song but it seems that function has been disabled. In hindsight, there were (and are) a lot more songs HERC could have used and someday soon, HERC may find his pure SPACE mixtape, a 110 minute "do-over" of SPACE.  What songs would be on your space-themed mixtape or playlist?

Unfortunately, four of the first eight songs on SPACE are not available via Spotify U.S.