I tested the We Are Rewind boombox – and it rekindled joyful memories of splicing together mixtapes

While testing out the We Are Rewind GB-001, the cassette-tape boombox with modern connectivity, something clicks in my brain. As I’m cueing up tracks and recording them to a ferric oxide cassette tape, it triggers memories I’d almost completely forgotten: of lazy Sunday mornings piecing together tapes to listen to during the week on my Sony Walkman.

There’s something deeply joyful about these memories. In an era before playlists were even a thing, recording mixtapes was the way we’d attempt to reduce our entire personality down to a single 60-minute mashup. And there’s a point during my testing of We Are Rewind’s boombox that I’m suddenly back there again, sat in front of hi-fi equipment meticulously taping tracks into place one by one and hoping I hadn’t left the record input volume down again.

This is a big part ...