Sony TC-D5 Portable Recorder
Field-tested, mother-approved. NPR still uses it. If you’re going to make field recordings, this is a great reliable way to do it. We used two of these to dub the EP and some of “And Six Dark Hours Pass.” We still use it to play back loops (live-to-tape) in the studio.

Casio SK-1 Sampling Keyboard (MIDI-converted)
We all know about this neat little guy, with its low-res sampling potential, but ours became a mutant weapon! Our friend Pat converted it to be MIDI. It’s the shit… fuck software! Between this guy and handmade cassette tape loops, we created the backbone of over a hundred tracks. Not joking! It has a very unique sound when overmodulated. [Our song] “Puget” is all SK-1, MidiVerb, and voice.

Handmade Yangqin Dulcimer
My bandmate Pablo got a kit to build one, but he kinda put it together all crazy-like. It looks like that time Homer Simpson built a BBQ but created post-modern art. It’s not easy to tune, so we just do it to some broken chromatic tuning. We use some contact mics—the shittier‚ the better—and we don’t use the hammers… we play it with our fingers.

“Wind Pipe Machine”

Alesis MidiVerb Effects Processor (non-rackmount)
We love it for its simplicity and its glitches. Sometimes it does what it wants, so when you want, say, gated reverb, it says “…em, no!” Instead, you get (insert a strange unlisted effect). This was used tons on the first EP and on A Cassette Tape Culture.

Scotch Tape and Razorblades
…for making tape loops. We have used old-school loops on almost every track we do. We know it would [be] easy to just cut and paste in Pro Tools, but the sound and manipulation (or lack thereof) is not the same. It’s challenging and that’s a big part of experimental music… at least to us.

Sasha Grey and aTelecine‘s A Cassette Tape Culture is out now on Pendu.