Integrated Circuits: Colin Potter, ICR and the Cassette Network

Integrated Circuits: Colin Potter, ICR and the Cassette Network

From Cassette Culture by Cassette Culture & DIY Music

December 23, 2025 · 28 min · Season 2 · Episode 2

About this episode

This episode explores the influence of Colin Potter and the growth of Integrated Circuit Records within the underground music scene.

Emerging from the same late-1970s underground that fuelled punk, DIY cassette culture, and European electronic experimentation, we explore the influence of Colin Potter - sound artist, producer, and founder of Integrated Circuit Records (ICR) From beginnings building crude oscillators and fuzz boxes to university access to an EMS Synthi A, his path reflects a generation discovering sound through curiosity rather than convention. We track the growth of ICR from a mail-order cassette operation into one of the UK’s most important underground labels of the early 1980s. Starting with cooperative compilation LPs and cassettes, Potter helped connect artists working across abstract electronics, industrial, cosmic music, and experimental sound - including  The Instant Automatons, The Legendary Pink Dots, Carl Matthews, The Door and The Window , and many others. We hear how Potter’s cassette duplication service became a crucial infrastructure for labels such as Third Mind Tapes . That practical role also led to deeper artistic collaborations, most notably with Nurse With Wound , Current 93 , and Steven Stapleton , where Potter’s studio became a space that hosted…

People in this episode

Guest: Colin Potter

Topics covered

  • DIY cassette culture
  • underground music
  • electronic experimentation
  • sound art
  • music collaboration
  • experimental sound

Keywords

  • Colin Potter
  • Integrated Circuit Records
  • DIY music
  • cassette culture
  • experimental music
  • underground labels
  • sound experimentation

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Integrated Circuit Records

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