John Christopher Harris II, who records as electronic experimental groove/soul group Mystery Cave, creates ambient, glitched-out beatscapes. He released an 8-song full-length Red Tide in early 2012. A limited edition cassette version (50 copies) came in a transparent green tape case with five variant covers, individually dubbed with printed labels and legit stock J-cards with immediate downloads in MP3 320, FLAC, and other electronic formats.
“CDs to me are a throwaway item,” he says. “They do not hold up well over time. There is very little long-term value to them. If you get a scratch or two on it, you might as well toss it in the garbage and pray you ripped it to your computer. Cassettes are like tiny works of art, in the same way books are.”
In May 2012, a limited-run blue cassette was released by the boutique label Kill Quanti, featuring Mystery Cave and avian death jockey Killer Swan. A new Mystery Cave release called Deep Field appeared in 2014, followed in 2015 by the Natural Mind EP (Psychic Fortitude).
By the end of 2015, Mystery Cave had a new release, Ausarian Comforts.