Spectral Deck - From Mixtapes to Meanings
- Troy Lowndes
- Sep 20
- 2 min read
Updated: 4 days ago
Alright, here it is. A throwback to the 1980s and 90s, back when music meant loading cassettes, making mix tapes, fast-forwarding, using your finger, or grabbing a pen to wind the tape through. Then there was vinyl: trying to scratch like a DJ and usually just scratching the record, or spinning it backwards to see what secrets might be hiding inside.
Back then, playing with music felt more thoughtful, more hands-on. These days CDs and MP3s are relics, and platforms like YouTube or Spotify often make the choices for us. You don’t even need to hit stop, fast-forward or rewind.
Spectral Deck is an homage to those times, when things felt simpler and when music carried its own myths and mysteries. I grew up in a religious household where rock ’n’ roll was branded “the devil’s music”, and backmasking was said to be a direct line to the pits of hell. I still remember the talk around KISS, in the early 80's... Gene Simmons’ tongue out on stage, and I Was Made for Lovin’ You being linked to it all.
That is the spirit behind Spectral Deck. Drop in any lyrics or text, whether it's a song, a poem, a pdf or even a webpage. Upload, hit “analyse”, and the deck peels back the layers, surfacing hidden meanings or alternative readings you might never have noticed.
It is a tool for reflection, shaped by years of concerts, nights in clubs, road trips, or just vibing at home. Music has always carried us through different emotions, whether as listeners or as artists making the sound.
The Spectral Deck is here to draw out those undercurrents, to show what might live beneath the words. We have tested it on top-ten tracks from the past decade and been stunned by what surfaces. Think of Redemption Song by Bob Marley, calling us to free ourselves from mental slavery, Sober by Tool, or One by U2. Feed their lyrics in and you do not just read, you reflect. It might even change the way you hear your favourite tune next time around.
We've even gamified it for the purposes of digging a little bit deeper.