Uploaded April 2020 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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I sat down in the kitchen with an old Sony cassette recorder and played tunes at it for half an hour. No point in overthinking things.

I grew up in the Tyneside Irish diaspora of the 80s and 90s, learning traditional tunes at Comhaltas and in sessions, and the distinctive sound of unaccompanied fiddle earnestly recorded to cheap ferric cassette for others to take home, share, copy and learn from is one that has a special place in my heart. The Sony TCM-2's electret mic is surprisingly sensitive, so it picks up loads of mechanical noise from the tape motor and unwanted ambient noise in the house (I recorded all these in the kitchen while the washing machine was on). If you sit close and play strong and steady, there's some magical combination of the TCM-2's gain circuitry and the tape format's natural compression that gently squeezes out the worst of the background noise and leaves the fiddle strong and tangible, gritty but sharp. Some instruments really suffer at the hands of tape, but the violin does pretty well.

Self indulgent? Sure. But through the filter of this nostalgia-drenched format, I listen back to it and hear in my own playing all the minute ornamentations and stylistic flourishes I picked up from those who taught and inspired me, mostly dead and gone now. Maybe the wow and flutter helps - it's certainly forgiving when I fluff a note.

I digitised the tape directly to WAV with no editing, processing, EQing or mastering. I believe most of the tunes are traditional (I couldn't find a composer for Mary McMahon's reel) but if I've missed a credit or attribution please let me know.

You can get this mini-album for free (or pay what you want) on Bandcamp here: echolevel.bandcamp.com/album/misc-reels-and-jigs-tape-1

1. Drunken Landlady, The Wise Maid (Reels)
2. Mary McMahon (Reel)
3. Toss The Feathers (Reel)
4. The Maid on The Green, Give Us A Drink of Water (Jigs)
5. Tell Her I Am, The Connachtman's Rambles (Jigs)
6. The Rakes of Clonmel (Jig)
7. Langstrom's Pony (Jig)
8. The Cup of Tea (Reel)
9. Foxhunter's (Slip Jig)
10. Munster Buttermilk (Jig)
11. The Scholar (Reel)
12. Foxhunter's (Reel)
13. Goodbye To Ireland (Reel)
14. Hurry The Jug (Set Dance)
15. The Mug of Brown Ale (Jig)
16. The Morning Star (Reel)
17. Lord Gordon's (Reel)