Cassetteboy

Cassetteboy is a UK mashup and plunderphonics group from Chelmsford, made up of Michael Bollen and Steve Warlin. The act works with hip hop, R&B and dancehall material, and is also associated with experimental electronic approaches to sampling.

Work and style

Cassetteboy’s pieces are built from large numbers of short audio fragments taken from television, radio, film and popular music. Their method follows the traditions of sampling and musique concrète, and is often described as plunderphonics. The work is usually humorous in tone, but many of the pieces have a political context.

Releases and recurring themes

The duo first appears on the Di and Dodi Do Die 7-inch, issued in 2000 on Barry’s Bootlegs, a label connected with Spymania. They release several albums of their own and also appear on Inside A Whale’s Cock Vol 1, a collaboration with DJ Rubbish that includes a spoof of an Alanis Morissette song.

Their releases also develop recurring subjects, including politics, The Streets, MF Doom and Harry Potter. Another repeated feature is an explanation of how the tracks are assembled, which appears at the start of some albums.