Musical Sludge (Not Referring to the Song Within This Post, Of Course)

My Tascam Portastudio journey this year has been so fulfilling in many tiny and large ways. It's also been very... "grounding" might be the word. It grounds me in a way I wasn't expecting.

I've been recording and rehearsing and rinsing and repeating all of August and the Portastudio has held up very well. I was thinking about buying some belts and such to prepare for when I need to do some repairs when the audio on the tape I was mixing down to the computer started dipping in and out at random. Tape knowers know the sound well: it was definitely time to clean the heads.

I get the stuff and I throw the machine into cleaning mode. I go cleaning mode. And then, BAM:

That's sludge, baby!!!!!!!!!

Having worked in digital audio for so long (over 10 years now if you can believe it), I'm struck by how much physical gunk my audio can produce in real life when doing things analog. Ableton Live never needs cleaning like this, but audio tapes are just ground-up magnets glued to strips of plastic. That's all getting dragged at high speeds through the 4-track recorder, across its metal record & play heads. That's gonna gunk it up after enough tape!

But I enjoy the process a lot. I enjoy taking time to clean the tape heads. I like taking time to rewind the tape to listen to the latest take. I love the Tascam's preamps so much I want to marry them. I don't mind the sludge. It reminds me I exist. If I can make sludge, I can make something better.

Even the throwaway songs sound good on this thing, once everything's cleaned up! The following mp3 was just bass practice while my girlfriend got on her stationary bike and watched anime (our new morning routine) that turned into a silly thing. To be clear, my girlfriend's bike is not big or stupid so it is not the inspiration for the song. Her bike is medium and, um, smart? Smart and stupid are both fake ideas anyway.

Enjoy the tune—or don't! I don't mind. The upcoming Summer Single (Coming Very Soon) and My Second Debut Album (Coming Soon) will be much better regardless :-).

Nicky Flowers - 09/01/25 - Gimme MORE gunk, tbh, I don't care - (send any comments/questions to hello at nickyflowers dot com)