There are those of us who love music for the emotional, the cerebral, and the intellectual passions that exist without any tangibility, and there are those of us who also fall in love with the pure physical medium. Vinyl collectors are the obvious example, but as International Cassette Store Day approaches, it may prove rewarding to shed a little light on the eccentric musical medium enthusiasts that opt for the other analog.

Cassette collector Micke describes himself as a “kock,” (don’t giggle, you nerds, it’s Swedish for “cook.”) The documentary below translates “kock” as “chef,” which, according to my (very) rudimentary Swedish, would actually be “köksmästare,” (I said quit giggling!) I make the distinction not out of pedantry, but because while “chef” insinuates head of the kitchen, cook insinuates a working stiff—though Swedish DMers are welcome to correct me if I’m wrong (That distinction, as minor as it may feel to some, matters to those of us who’ve made minimum wage in kitchens). If Micke is as I think he is, a line cook grunt as opposed to the head of a kitchen, he’s making low wages (yes, even in the socialized utopia of Sweden), but pursues his cassette hobby as an artistically fulfilling extra-curricular activity, as opposed to the errant pursuits of a middle-class hobbyist.

The mini-documentary below is a compelling look at Micke’s analog life.  In addition to his own expeditions for lesser-known cassettes, Micke lovingly crafts playlists for sparsely attended parties, releases his own magnetically modified cassettes (also available for digital download, of course), and blogs his findings for the wider cassette community. There’s a desperate moment after the documentarians “help” him pack up his gear for a party and unknowingly demagnetize a number of his cassettes. The audience is reminded of how fragile such physical mediums used to be, and I’m somewhat relieved people like Micke are out there curating the artifacts that folks like me are so flippantly careless about.

Forgive us Micke! We know not what we do!