â€¨â€¨Just when you thought you were out, Sacco pulls you back into the analog abyss with a rundown of Shanghai and Beijing's tape releases.

Please install Flash Player

Please install Flash Player

Please install Flash Player

Please install Flash Player

Please install Flash Player

Please install Flash Player

Please install Flash Player

Please install Flash Player

Please install Flash Player

Please install Flash Player

Please install Flash Player

This column is written by DJ Sacco, who runs Uptown Records , Shanghai's dedicated vinyl shop. Ironically, they don't sell Mp3s or dabble in anything digital, instead they have 7" and 12", EPs and LPs from rock to electronic, rare pressings, DJ equipment and band merchandise. Find them in an old bomb shelter at 115 Pingwu Lu.

***Happy Monday, Shanghai! This week marks the start of Split Works’ JUE Festival , which will consume most your life for the month of March. Friday’s JUE opening live show with How to Dress Well should be solid, then Saturday’s ITAL / Magic Touch gig at Shelter will knock your socks off. However, I think we can all agree this little JUE rouse has had quite enough press already so this week let’s dive into what’s really important in the Chinese music scene: the cassette comeback.Now before we get going with the Mp3 versions of these analog masterpieces I’d like to open up a little debate with the Shanghai readers out there. Currently there is a hole that needs to be filled in the music scene — the physical format. There will always be people who want a copy of their favorite music to hold in their hands. Come on, getting that little piece of download-code paper at a release show just sucks. CDs are basically just Mp3 or Wav files slapped onto wasted plastic that doesn’t hold any value, gets scratched and is simply inconvenient to play. Vinyl records will probably last the longest and because of the pressing process they hold value, but let’s face it, they’re heavy, take up a ton of space, record players are a bitch to maintain, and getting records made is both expensive and labor-intensive. Then you have USB albums, like the Shanghai band Pairs released last year. The USB release makes it easy to share songs and videos with friends, fits nicely in your pocket and you can even re-use it to store your porn clips on the go.But finally we come to cassette tapes, which boast inferior music quality than vinyl or digital and don’t really hold their value. However, they are a lot easier to make than vinyl and give you a bit more of a personal feel for the music when played through a boombox from start to finish. Cassettes have been enjoying some hipster, retro revival in recent years, but my only plea to the pretentious tape label proprietors out there is to release their music digitally as well. If it only comes out on a cassette, your music becomes so uber rare that only 30 people get to hear it, and that’s not artistically respectful, it’s elitist and stupid.Newcomer in the cassette game is SVBKVLT, which is the new clothing / music label project from Sub-Culture. Their first tape, Faded Ghost’s, is being released this Thursday at the Andrew Meza show . Faded Ghost is the solo project of ChaCha, who we all love, and whose many projects, such as AM444 and her MCing with Uprooted Sunshine, continue to brighten our miserable lives. The material she’s releasing on this cassette has been out for a while, but if you’re a fan then go down and pick one up. Then head to the Fuxing Lu or Baoshan Lu electronic market to buy a boombox because, literally, I’m buying every one up in Shanghai.Next up from SVBKVLT is Philippines-based Caliph-8, who rocked the Antidote party at Shelter back in ’11. Caliph-8 has a remix track on Shanghai-based producer Hamacide’s album,, which you’re welcome to buy on vinyl anytime at Uptown Records . This stuff is great. It harks back to the simpler days when a man just needed an MPC and an 808 to churn out solid, downtempo beats. Tap it out Caliph8, tap that shit out…Shanghai noise / performance artists / will-close-down-your-club-if-they-play act Torturing Nurse have been releasing cassettes for years. If you check their Discogs page you’ll notice they have collaborative projects with artists from all around the world in multiple formats. Check out this little 13-minute ditty from their cassette, which is based on a real contest by two Japanese soldiers during WWII. So, you know, there’s that….Oh Beijing, we can’t forget about you. The kids up north don’t spare on the pretention either, releasing more than a few cassettes in the past couple years. One of Beijing’s longest-running and most adored bands Carsick Cars got into the game in 2011 with their tape release. Put out by Pangibianr, which is run by Josh, who writes the Mp3 Mondays in Beijing (my arch enemy and the guy who made out with my sister). Good times, good times…But top prize in the “hey, look how unique we are” contest goes to Beijing band The Offset Spectacles , who do tape and vinyl releases on their own label, Rose Mansion Analog. These kids take it up a notch, only using vintage VOX amps, recording with analog gear, and refusing to play live shows at places that don’t have their strict lo-fi gear requirements.But who am I kidding? That stuff is great. It makes you think they must be pretty hot shit if they throw around bb balls in those skinny jeans like that. Touché, Offset Spectacles, touché…Another Rose Mansion Analog release that blew everyone away the Dirty Beaches cassette. The label was able to get this Taiwanese / Canadian Lo-Fi star just before he blew up around the world. Real name Alex Zhang Hungtai, Dirty Beaches is based in Montreal and had a string of cassette releases before his albumcame out in 2011 and was lapped up by the critics.A lot of the stuff is unlistenable to me, but a lot of it is amazing. Here are a couple tracks from one of his more popular cassettes,Well, that’s all for the Chinese cassette roundup, kids. One label I didn’t have time to get into was Zoomin’ Night up in Beijing, which releases a wide range of great experimental music on multiple formats (including cassettes). Maybe more on that next time we look at reel life.***