Podcasts are the big thing nowadays, with the mainstream finally taking notice after the commercial success of Serial and realising just how awesome they can be. I LOVE podcasts and have been listening for years, ever since first discovering ‘Colt Cabana’s Art of Wrestling’ many, many moons ago. It was before every podcast ever was sponsored by audible so quite a while! So I’ll be looking through my favs and highlighting some that I think are the best every week until I run out.  My current favourite is The Black Tapes, and I’ll try and tell you why, but ultimately you should probably just go and listen to decide for yourself.

Described as ‘X-Files meets Serial’  and one of iTunes picks for 2015; The Black Tapes is a Fakeumentary (or Mockumentary) from intrepid reporter Alex Reagan who starts off investigating Dr Richard Strand (of the Strand Institute) who has put up a million dollar bounty for proof of paranormal activity.  Whilst investigating this man, his institute and why he’s doing this she discovers that he has a section of tapes (in black VHS cases) that, whilst don’t prove paranormal activity, can’t be disproved quite yet.  From this comes a series of events that need to be heard to be (dis)believed. What starts as a 1-hour show ends up with a whole series and is now onto it’s second.  The series is a great adventure with excellent acting and a real way of helping you suspend disbelief. The second series is justified and has spawned off other series from the fictional (or are they) parent companies ‘Pacific Northwest Stories’ and ‘Minnow Beats Whale’ such as Tanis and an upcoming true crime docu-drama. So turn off your lights, fire up your phone and try and not die when you hear the UNSOUND -if you listen you’ll see what I mean!- of The Black Tapes

The Black Tapes
The Black Tapes
Chris Caldwell

Author: Chris Caldwell

Chris Caldwell at your service! My favourite things are eating and Theatre, I have 2 small sons called Alex and Max who are more mustard than Hellmann's. I spend my days trying to wrangle them and exploring my favourite city - BELFAST! My favourite films are horror, my fav music is metal and my favourite Beatle is Ringo, mainly his work on Thomas the Tank.