“Electronics & Music Maker” (E&MM) was a magazine aimed at home/hobby music makers that started in the early 1980s and was produced as an offshoot of the mighty Maplin electronic component distribution empire. The idea was that it would promote more sales and engagement with Maplin’s component business through projects & DIY features based around the fledging home audio/electronics/recording/music-production market segment.
As a nerdy electronics hobbyist and budding home-musician I was exactly the target demographic. Well, maybe I was a little too young as I was still at school and limited by (lack of) funds. I remember skipping school meals for a few weeks and saving my “dinner money” to buy a Casio VL-1…
Later as a Uni student I think I cut up most of my E&MM copies to decorate my walls. Pride of place were Cabaret Voltaire & Tears for Fears (sliced up covers from issues Nov ’84 & Jan ’85 respectively).
Whilst chatting with an old colleague he mentioned a tape-cassette given away in the 1990s free with a “Professional Electrician & Installer” publication and this reminded me again of E&MM. The magazine had decided to offer cassette tapes for sale that featured audio clips of some of the instruments, projects & artists featured in the mag. I had purchased “Demo Cassette 6” in 1982 (again funded by pocket money no doubt) that featured audio from February’s & March’s issues.
A cursory internet search discovered the mu:zines site – an online archive collection of similar magazines from the same era. They were looking for copies of the old E&MM “Demo Cassettes” to archive and after contacting the site admin I discovered they hadn’t found any yet; I was the first E&MM cassette owner to come forward since the site went live around 2015. Excite!
I hooked up the old Technics RS-B665 and via audacity I soon had an MP3 containing the sounds of 1982’s finest home-electro-musician/home-recording technology 😀
now available for your total listening pleasure at the mu:zines site
Room 7609 