HERC has been spending some time scanning through the many, many unmarked mixtapes in his stash. Today's tape is one of those heretofore unknowns. And <SURPRISE!> it's not a TDK SA 90.
According to a cassette collectors site, this tape was manufactured from 1994-1996 and is generally regarded as not of the best quality. It has a uniquely shaped case and correspondingly cut j-card as seen in the image below. HERC's tape and j-card are blank so he deduced the track list through a series of fast forwards and rewinds.
So what was on this tape? The synth-pop geniuses known as Heaven 17. HERC was able to determine that the entire tape was dubbed from CD except the final three tracks on side B, which were taken from two 12" singles. The CDs used were Penthouse & Pavement, The Luxury Gap, How Men Are and The Best Of Heaven 17.
| SIDE A | 55:07 | ||||
| 1981 | (We Don't This) Fascist Groove Thang | 04:21 | |||
| 1981 | * | I'm Your Money | 05:12 | ||
| 1981 | Play To Win | 03:38 | |||
| 1981 | Penthouse And Pavement | 06:24 | |||
| 1981 | The Height Of The Fighting | 03:01 | |||
| 1983 | Let Me Go | 04:23 | |||
| 1981 | Geisha Boys And Temple Girls | 04:34 | |||
| 1983 | Temptation | 04:39 | |||
| 1983 | Come Live With Me | 04:18 | |||
| 1983 | Crushed By The Wheels Of Industry | 05:54 | |||
| 1981 | Let's All Make A Bomb | 05:07 | |||
| 1981 | Song With No Name | 03:36 | |||
| SIDE B | 50:22 | ||||
| 1984 | Sunset Now | 03:36 | |||
| 1984 | This Is Mine | 03:51 | |||
| 1984 | And That's No Lie | 10:08 | |||
| 1984 | Flamedown | 02:59 | |||
| 1986 | Foolish Thing To Do | 03:41 | |||
| 1986 | Trouble | 04:03 | |||
| 1986 | Contenders | 04:29 | |||
| 1983 | * | Let Me Go | 06:22 | ||
| 1983 | Let Me Go (instrumental) | 04:54 | |||
| 1984 | * | And That's No Lie | 06:19 |
Why these tracks? HERC doesn't remember but he would consider most of them favorites today. Maybe all of them were his favorites back then? Or maybe someone said they liked that one Heaven 17 song and HERC said "Let me make you a tape" and then he never gave it? And with nearly five minutes of blank space at the end of side B, was the tape even finished? Best not to dwell on such issues when there is music to be heard.
sadly, How Men Are has not been restored to Spotify US yet although it was there once upon a time
Ah, I do love me some early Heaven 17 - they were my jam late in high school and early in college. I had the American release, self-titled, that was mostly Penthouse and Pavement with a few substituted tracks. Still a favorite of mine today.
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