Pleasantly Surprised
'Pleasantly Surprised was a cassette label that focused on post-punk, cold wave, new wave and ethereal bands, many of which happened to be on the legendary 4AD label. Pleasantly Surprised was started by Robert H. King based in Glasgow Scotland. It was originally intended as a fanzine: "But most of the bands I had written to sent demos, so I thought rather than write about them I would put together a cassette and let people judge for themselves." ...
With the financial assistance of a friend who was already doing a fanzine, Robert released An Hour Of Eloquent Sounds [PS 001]. The cassette came in an 6x9 manila envelope with photocopied inserts... At the label's peak, 5000 copies of PS005 were sold... The cassettes were all elaborately packaged, usually with oversized cardboard covers in plastic sleeves and including several inserts or booklets. The music was mostly made up of demo, live or alternate-take recordings...
In 1985 Robert went on to start another record label called Cathexis Recordings.'
From Dreams and Desires: Pleasantly Surprised History and Discography.
See also
cassette culture