I’m delighted to ‘go live’ with a new blog-type website today.

www.thereeltoreelrambler.com is the place where I’ll be sharing my love of all things tape/open reel/R2R.

There’s two parts to the site: first, a beginner’s guide to tape, and second, a series of regular blog posts where I’ll add reviews of music on tape, news, interviews with relevant experts and interesting parties, opinion pieces, practical advice and tips, etc.

I’m not pitching myself as some kind of expert here, more an enthusiastic fan of the form keen to create a ‘hub’ for other folks in a similar boat. The intended audience is those who are relatively new to the world of tape – typically music lovers and audiophiles who are eager to listen to superb quality recordings, rather than those in the pro field (that said, professionals are of course very welcome indeed!).

If tape’s your thing, please do dive in…

I’d very much welcome thoughts and suggestions along the way. There’s a contact form on the blog and also links to my Facebook and Twitter pages where you can pop over for a chat or post a comment or two.

And if you’re in the tape business, or are a serious enthusiast, or even a keen beginner and would like to contribute some thoughts, drop me a line and we can talk about a guest blog/article/opinion piece/interview/snippet – I’m open to ideas!

Here’s that URL again: www.thereeltoreelrambler.com

Look forward to seeing you there!

PS. I’ll be moving over the archive of R2R-related news and musings from here on the DDPR website over to the reel-to-reel rambler, so if you’re looking for something open reel-related that was previously here, you’ll now find it over there!

“The complex rhythms are intoxicating but it’s the timbre and the individual tonal character of the drums and the percussive elements that totally seduce me. Everything sounds so organic… the drums really do sound like they’re carved from trees with animal skins stretched over. Shakers sound like beans in the husk of a gourd and contrast wonderfully with the wooden ‘thock’ of what I guess is a balafon. Overlaying all these woody textures are bells that are sweet, shimmering and crystal clear, while faint vocal chanting adds the perfect seasoning to the mix.”

Hop over to www.thereeltoreelrambler.com to read Dave Denyer’s recent review of ‘The World of Heavy Percussion and Large Japanese Drums’, a new release on open reel tape from STS Digital / Analog.