Once upon a time, audio tape was so ubiquitous that most households had enough of the stuff to wrap around several football pitches. Now it’s an obsolete curio of a sonically explosive era. Loop back with us as we follow the Möbius strip of sound itself from Victorian Paris to a vast subterranean maze

Think tape loops are a thing of the past? Think again. From familiar names to under-the-radar innovators, here are 30 contemporary artists pushing tape loops into new, strange and unexpected places

Finders Keepers co-founder and DJ Doug Shipton hand-picks 20 indispensable tape music albums, charting the medium’s extraordinary journey from studio novelty to revolutionary instrument