I have some exciting news for you here folks, especially for those of us craving a wider range of musical genres on tape. (Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge fan of jazz and classical, but I also love a whole heap of other genres and am always hankering to hear more of them on tape!). It was great to see an Alice Cooper album from Horch House last year, and now we’ve got some electronica.
To celebrate their 40th anniversary, Swiss electronic band Yello are launching their 1985 album Stella on reel-to-reel tape. And there’s more – a limited edition, custom-designed reel-to-reel deck to go with it! I’ll say more about the deck later, but first let’s talk tapes…
Stella is the first of five Yello albums due for release on tape (more on the others later).
Stella on tape: the band, the sound
Formed in the late 1970s, Yello (who are duo Dieter Meier and Boris Blank) have released around 14 studio albums. Stella was the fourth and was the first album ever by a Swiss band to top the Swiss album chart! The song ‘Oh Yeah’ from the album gained worldwide attention in 1986 when it featured in the film Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and a year later it also appeared in The Secret of My Success.
The band’s sound is deliciously quirky and the duo are known and loved for their unusual, sometimes surreal, music samples (all sampled and re-engineered by Boris Blank himself rather than borrowed from previously released music), combined with irresistible rhythm and overlaid with vocalist Dieter Meier’s dark and brooding voice. If you’re not familiar with their work, take a tour of www.yello.com and / or www.youtube.com/@yello2815.
If you’re a clubber you’ll no doubt know them already, whether from their original tracks or various remixes (like the 1995 tribute remix album Hands on Yello which features mixes by the likes of Moby, the Orb, Carl Cox, Carl Craig, etc).
The band came to my attention during the mid-to-late 80s when they were the choice of demo material at hi-fi shows and high-end audio dealer events. Why? Because their sound is mind-blowingly impressive (and is perfect for revealing the breadth and depth of what a system can do). So it’s always been par for the course to go to a hi-fi show and hear The Raceor Oh Yeah blasting out from one room or another!
So, on to the new master tape copies… First off, there will be a very limited release (just 10 copies!) of a special, luxury edition – ‘The Tube Recording’ – which will be hand-numbered (1-10) and hand-signed by the band (Dieter and Boris), priced at approx. €1,500. Links for more info and to buy are listed at the end of this blog.
These limited edition tapes are being hand-produced, one at a time by Jürg Schopper using two classic ‘dream machine’ master recorders of the vacuum tube era: a Studer C37 for playback of the master, and a Telefunken M10 at the recording end. Yello’s Boris Blank has personally listened to the tape copies and his verdict is “Spectacular. It sounds even better than when we originally produced it!” (Which is really saying something, since as I mentioned above, even the CD sounds so good that it’s been featured at endless high-end audio shows).
Beyond this initial limited edition, Stella will be available on tape from Horch House, in two of Horch House’s three formats: Studio Master Copy and Standard Master Copy (you can read more about each format in an earlier blog, Horch House’s new tape formats and packaging). In this case what you’re buying is:
Standard Master
- 1/4″ – 15ips – 2track – 320 nWb/m – 1 metal reel – Deluxe Packaging
- Sales price: 400€ (excluding VAT in the EU)
- Sales price USA: $480
Studio Master
- 1/4″ – 15ips – 2track – 510 nWb/m – 2 metal reels – Deluxe Packaging
- Sales price Europe: 550€ (excluding VAT in the EU)
- Sales price USA: $660
You can purchase direct from Horch House www.horchhouse.com/yellolandingpage or see their list of worldwide dealers www.horchhouse.com/ordering
A ‘sneak preview’ of the tape
I’ve been lucky enough to get my hands on a pre-production copy of the tape!
In a word: woaahh! In two words: neighbours beware!
There’s one thing you can’t ignore from the second you press play, and that’s that this tape, this sound, is utterly massive! If you already know Yello, then you’ll know what I mean and you’ll be itching to hear that sound on tape. The soundscapes they create are HUGE. The sheer size and scale of it is VAST. Bass will fill your room like a tsunami, except not like a tsunami because it stops and starts with extreme precision. I mean, if these guys were surgeons you’d trust them to cut you open, it’s that precise, that clean. You feel it in your chest, in your legs, in your feet, in your soul.
How is it even possible to be so precise when the sound is made up of so many layers? This is what Boris Blank is renowned for: his absolute attention to detail and quest for the purest, highest quality sound. Here, on tape, you can hear and feel that like never before. Yes, this is electronic music, but in this case it’s produced with more care and more skill than a whole heap of acoustic music. Frankly it sounds phenomenal, seriously impressive.
I’m not surprised that Yello hit the big time when their music was featured in blockbuster movies, as the whole effect is totally cinematographic. It’s kind of like watching something akin to ‘Blade Runner’ in 3D, in terms of the way you’re transported into a futuristic landscape that’s all-encompassing and viscerally real. The dynamic range is phenomenal and the rhythms – a signature feature of the Yello experience – are hypnotic.
The temptation to turn it up and up and up is irresistible. I succumbed – and can happily report that this tape can take it without any loss of quality and detail. Even at mega volumes nothing is harsh, nothing jars, even the sweetest sounds can shimmer across the finely etched soundstage while you’re having your internal organs rearranged by the earth-shattering bass. (Hence ‘neighbours beware’!). My hi-fi system has probably never been subjected to this much of a test (but don’t worry, it enjoys being pushed, and it’s never sounded so good!).
My top three tracks? Tough call, but I’m going to have to include the obvious choice of the all-time classic ‘Oh Yeah’, which really thunders along but remains tight and clean all the way. ‘Stalakdrama’ is another standout for me; initially it had me thinking of Pink Floyd before my all preconceptions and comparisons were swept away and I was transported into a massive and awesome gothic-horror-sci-fi immersion. And then probably ‘Ciel Ouvert (Open Sky)’, with its epic cinematography that brings in helicopter fly-bys and a full choir, among other things. Utter majesty. If they made another new Dune film this could definitely be the soundtrack!
In short, this first Yello master tape edition is a staggeringly spectacular achievement and, having given my system a thorough workout, I’m now very much looking forward to collecting the set. Roll on the next release!
The Revox B77 MkII Yello Edition
To coincide with the tape release, Yello are also releasing a very limited edition ‘Yello / Revox’ tape deck (again, there’ll be just 10 of these machines made!). The deck is a customised version of the Revox B77 MkII tape recorder (which ReVox started selling again in late 2023) – the customisation being the addition of Yello graphics and a yellow-coloured tape counter that reads ‘YELLO’ at switch-on. Cool!
The price of these decks will be approx. €12,600 (before UK/EU sales tax if you’re UK/Europe-based).
Distribution and sales of the tape machine will be handled by Revox. Again, links to find out more and place an order are at the end of this blog below.
Hear the tape & see the decks first at Axpona and Munich High-End shows
The tapes will go on sale at Axpona (12-14 April) in Schaumburg, IL (Chicago area) and at Munich High-End in Germany (9-12 May), and I think the decks will probably be there too. Boris from Yello will be on the Horch House stand at Munich (10am-12pm on the Saturday) so if you’re heading that way, you can pop along and say hi.
The Studio Master Copy of the tape will be available at Axpona at a special offer price of $398 to take away on the day.
The areas to head for are:
- Axpona: Room 428 (Pro Audio)
- Munich High-End: High-End Hall 4 / Room T08
Where, how and when
The official launch date is 3rd April. From then, you should be able to find everything you need at www.yello.com. More information and links will be added as things unfold and titles / products are released to market.
In addition to www.yello.com you can also check out:
- https://mastertape.yello.com
- https://revox.com/yello-limited-edition/
- www.horchhouse.com/yellolandingpage
At the time of writing, the draft schedule for release of further albums on tape is as follows (but this may be a moveable feast in practice):
- One Second: October 2024
- Flag: April/May 2025
- Baby: October 2025
- Zebra: April/May 2026
And finally, here are the guys themselves, introducing the whole project – in true Yello style – followed by some video ‘rambling’ from me!
Dave Denyer: The Reel-to-Reel Rambler 