When Don asked me to do this the first thing that popped into my head
(and due to maybe too many years and too much alcohol under the bridge
or over the lips) was actually what i recall as my first tape
purchase. So since one sort of leads into the other i shall write
about both. What i have been finding by the way with the beginnings
(finally) of some of the historical look at tape underground etc is
that trying to remember a lot of this has dredged up some interesting
memories plus i am sure, some very false ones. So i am hoping that as
some of this gets related (by myself and others) any factual errors
can be corrected. For instance i can no longer quite remember what
magazines i first heard of the cassette and noise thing in. In the
early 80s i was reading the New York Rocker (a monthly) and the Soho
News (a weekly) - and either one of them (maybe both?) could have
mentioned some cassette labels - or more likely they mentioned Op
which i probably went out and bought and read about some of the small
labels (and in the early issues of Op there may have been 5 or 10 tape
reviews). Somehow, somewhere in this mist of magazines i read about
George Smith of Chainsaw Tapes and his own project Senseless Hate. I
believe George was located somewhere in Pennsylvania. I can't recall
what i bought first - could have been a Senseless Hate tape or could
have been one of the compilations he had put out. If it was a
compilation it was also an introduction to me to Smersh among others,
which led to further purchases...(and a quick word on Senseless Hate
which was guitar and screaming and very cool and new to me). And after
purchasing tapes from folks on the compilations and what i was reading
elsewhere, the desire to not have to buy tapes but to trade them was
one of the mail reasons that i began my own cassette label - Sound of
Pig Music. So that i would have tapes to trade - for more tapes. The
first SOP tape was a compilation called Slave Ant Raid (in late 1984)
and featured the very first piece that i made as If, Bwana (entitled
- Slave Ant Raid - oh that self-referentiality. I do not recall who
was my very first trade - and it was likely this compilation. My very
first trade i can really remember was done with none other than Zan
Hoffman. If memory serves he was just heading off to college in Des
Moines and swapped for my Sombrero Galaxy cassette (another more
"song" oriented project) - it may have been the first trade that i did
not originate - just for some reason the letter from Zan, who
continues to plug away to this day as well and who i remain in contact
with) sticks in my head as the first person wanting what i had
produced. Now of course if someone else wants to remind me of them
being my first trade, go for it - i had actually even forgotten the
Zan thing till Don asked for this (ha!! brief) memory lane stroll. www.pogus.com

Considered by many to be the central figure in underground cassette culture, Al Margolis is like some others in this community: he ran his own label, did his own music, guested on radio shows, did live performances and was  (and is) a tireless champion of independent, experimental and do-it-yourself music.

He currently runs the Pogus label which mainly features high quality, experimental sounds packaged with loving care and artistic grace.