Cassettes are back. There are plenty of good reasons to dig out your old tape deck or to go venturing to a salubrious flea market to scavenge for one.

They’re back in vogue to such an extent that there’s even a day dedicated to the beauty of magnetic tape. Record label Späti Palace (we don’t need to tell you where these guys are based, do we?) are marking the occasion with an exclusive run of tapes. This split release, featuring the excellent power-pop sounds of Strand Child and the indie-rock styles of Celsius Panda, once again demonstrates Späti Palace have their fingers firmly on the pulse of Berlin’s music scene.

The pairing of Strand Child and Celsius Panda somehow feels incredibly natural. Having not heard Berlin bands of this calibre in a while, Späti Palace’s label boss Barry Cliffe told us it felt right to pair these for a release as he recognised that both bands complemented each other so well.

Strand Child have a refreshingly poppy yet melancholic sound that belies a love for power-pop heavyweights Guided By Voices or the jangly guitar-pop of Big Star. A show was immediately set up for the band after singer Mario got in touch with Späti Palace. Fitting snugly next to Strand Child is German trio Celsius Panda, who formed in 2014. Mixing powerful post-punk guitar rhythms with colourful sounds inspired by bands including Lower Dens and Beach House, Celsius Panda wowed Späti Palace with their excellent live performance. A ‘great discovery’, Barry recalls seeing something that was missing in Berlin’s music scene at a Celsius Panda show.

BERLIN LOVES YOU are premiering an exclusive song from Celsius Panda, Swimmer, which can be heard below:

A load of cool stuff is planned for Cassette Day on Saturday at Monarch on Kottbusser Tor. From 4.30pm there will be a cassette market featuring Berlin labels and collectives including Mansions and Millions, Twaague, Flennen, The Chop and of course Späti Palace. That evening, Celsius Panda will be performing live in Monarch and there is also music next door in the West Germany venue. More info can be found here.

Strand Child perform in support of Nap Eyes at Monarch on November 17th. The Facebook event page is here.

Fan of tapes? Mincer Ray and my band Chases are playing a show together on Wednesday 12th which will be recorded live onto tape. The tapes will be available to buy after the show – how cool is that? Find out more here.