Skiff? Blank tape cassette project???

Question

Location. The creative area of Tokyo! IYKYK. Who. Skiff What. A blank cassette tape. .. ..... aka a 'silent beat tape' Where exactly. Found in a phone box.

So.....

Who is Skiff? Google searches produce nothing. What is Skiff? Is this a music project?

My interpretation. I find a cassette tape left in a phone box. There is some English on the wooden cassette stand. It says: 'This Tape was composed by you You are Skiff yourself'

I take the tape. Back home, I play it, it's blank.

Anyone want to add anything to this? Seen these before? Did I miss something? My instinct is to record something on the tape and put it back. I did a google search with several different search terms. Skiff seemed to be some kind of productivity/email/notation platform that got bought out by another platform (Notion) but that doesn't tie in. Skiff come up as a Memphis based rock band on insta. Or this on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/100063870998080/videos/2083525668594308?__so__=permalink

I thought I could find more on the IDD festival but nope....

Anyone?

anna · Answer

oh man, that's a classic tokyo art scavenger hunt thing. i've seen a few of these pop up around shimokitazawa and koenji over the years, usually tied to some small experimental music or zine collective. the "you are skiff" bit is the giveaway - it's a participatory project, not a band. the idea is you're supposed to record your own sounds on it and pass it along. leaving it in a phone box is a very specific tokyo move, like those little free galleries people set up in coin lockers. i'd say go ahead and record something, maybe a field recording from your neighborhood or a conversation, then drop it somewhere else in shimokita or around the idd festival area. the fun is in the mystery and the chain

elise · Answer

yeah i've stumbled on these before, usually around shimokitazawa or koenji. the blank tape thing has been floating around for maybe 3-4 years now, some people think it's tied to a guy who runs a tiny record shop near the hakusan shrine but i've never confirmed it. the point is you're supposed to become skiff by adding your own sound and passing it on, like a chain letter for audio. i'd record something short, maybe 5-10 minutes, and leave it in a different phone box or a book in a used bookstore. the anonymous art thing is pretty big here, there's a whole scene of people leaving tapes and zines in random spots around shimokita. no one really knows who started it and that's kind of the point

emilie · Answer

i've seen a couple of these floating around the shimokita record stores too, mostly near the intersection by engei hall. the japanese twitter thing is real, try searching スキフ or ブランクカセット, you'll find some old posts from like 2022 about people leaving them in the phone boxes near yoyogi station. one theory i heard is it's connected to a small collective that used to do live shows at the basement venue under the shimokita train tracks, but that place closed during covid so who knows

the "you are skiff yourself" line is the whole gimmick, you're supposed to treat it like a blank canvas. i'd record something ambient like the sound of the train passing through shimokita station and drop it back near the old maneki cafe area, that spot gets a lot of foot traffic from people who'd actually pick it up

ina · Answer

ive seen a couple of these pop up in the kichijoji area too, near the inokashira park phone boxes. the "skiff" thing might be a play on "skiffle" - that old diy folk music movement from the 50s where anyone could join in with whatever instruments they had. fits the whole blank tape concept pretty well

if you want to dig deeper, try searching japanese twitter for スキフ or ブランクテープ instead of english. the underground tape scene here tends to stay off google and lives more on twitter and mixcloud. i remember someone posted about finding one near the meiji park baseball field last year, but the thread got deleted pretty fast

recording something and putting it back is the right move honestly. maybe stick a note on your recording saying where you found it and where you left it next. adds to the chain and someone else might pick it up from there

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