It’s like Christmas in April. You can’t sleep the night before, you wake up really, really early to get your present, and you more often than not end up disappointed with a pair of socks. Well, possibly not the last bit about the socks, but Record Store Day is nearly upon us.
The official list of releases for RSD15 (hashtag) has been announced and it’s a mixed bag of pant wettingly exciting 7”s (ohhh matron) and David Bowie releasing some of his greatest hits from the 1970’s.
It seems everyone gets involved these days. Last year there was a One Direction picture disc. This is unacceptable. However, it is quite exciting when the biggest and best decide to put something brand new out. Johnny Marr with his Depeche Mode cover and Temples are doing another split single like last year with Jagwar Ma, this time with Fever the Ghost where they are covering each other’s songs.
There are also the pointless. The aforementioned Bowies re-issues, albeit on a picture disc. A-ha are putting out “Take on me” on one too, but why?? Great tunes, but I bet there are original copies in a cardboard box at a Record Fair in your local church hall.
To your average vinyl obsessive (Hello!) the thought of some of these releases does give you a thrill. In thinking about this article, I’ve perused the list of special releases and where my rational mind would say “so what??”, the mere words ‘12” coloured vinyl’ is enough to give you a warm fuzzy feeling and a tingle down below.
But, is a special double LP of the latest U2 album that got dumped on anyone with an iTunes account really necessary?
There are some genuinely different things coming out too. Some split singles of the same song on both sides by different artists with one from Gram Parsons/Lemonheads and another from The Black Keys/Junior Kimbrough.
The one release I’m really desperate to get my mitts on is the Various Artists Compilation LP instigated by Alcopop Records with a track by bands on 10 different Independent labels, including them, with the likes of Memphis Industries and Bella Union involved. It’ll be pressed on a lovely crushed yellow vinyl, with a download of additional material. Marvellous.
So there are pros and cons, but ultimately is this benefiting those who need the help. The small independent stores, the small independent labels, the small bands with the DIY ethic.
I’ve said it, and countless other periodicals and sites have too, but it bears repeating in this context, there is a new boom in vinyl collection, helped in no small part by Record Store Day. Back at its conception in 2007, RSD was the brain-child of people who loved vinyl and the independent record shop and wanted to help stem it’s slide into extinction as the megastores undercut and engulfed and the digital download wiped them out in a sea of 0 and 1’s.
Today, whilst it lags behind the mp3, vinyl is the tangible music storage of choice. For the discerning music collector, the LP is king and the CD is dying the kind of death that vinyl was inflicted with in the 90’s. HMV survives but the recession wiped out the rest of the huge conglomerate music sellers, and ironically, despite the closure of many HMV stores or downsizing of others, the vinyl section has grown tenfold.
The demand for vinyl has resulted in a pressure on the pressing plants. The proportionate rise in sales to the number and size of the companies and establishments that create them is overbearing, overburdening and overloading these places and delays are inevitable.
On top of this the cost of creating vinyl has not gone down. Yet. It may not either, as the difference between the 1960’s and 70’s production to the amounts ordered now are vast. This is shown in the price as most new releases are around the £20 mark, at least £16/£17. Those that are less than that are generally of a much, much poorer quality. It’s no coincidence that descriptions of new vinyl releases state specifically that they are 180g heavyweight and the price generally demonstrates the superior quality.
In this new digital age, sound quality is of the essence and despite our love for the pop’s and crackle’s of vinyl it still has to sound good. Due to this, a great number of albums are being pressed onto two separate records with just 3 tracks on each side to ensure greater sound. This obviously bumps up the price, so record companies and/or bands try and lower these costs somehow.
Uber fans will normally buy something anyway, but trying to entice the new generation of record buyers with just their pocket money, to part with their cash on a double LP when it’s £30, is going to be tricky. Saving up isn’t something ingrained into today’s society when you can get a short term loan as long as you can sign your name.
Therefore corners are going to be cut and with the demand for vinyl higher than for a long time, and getting ahead in the queue that is getting longer and longer is hard, the quality is suffering. It isn’t even where you may expect it. Mass produced, big name releases that could be liable to a substandard product due to the volume of pressings, generally are fine, but this could be down to who these are for. If it’s Sony or Universal or Capitol then the quality will have to be good to ensure further orders. If an independent comes asking for 25,000 units then there’s a fair chance they won’t be the best. Smaller, limited edition runs are normally very good as the emphasis is on a quality product not a general release.
Independent labels Sonic Cathedral and Howling Owl are boycotting RSD by releasing one copy of a split single by Spectres and Lorelle Meets the Obsolete every day for 365 days. The premise is that everyday should be Record Store Day and the original idea behind the day has been lost in favour of the product rather than the actual shop. As a result of their proposed distribution strategy, they have encountered production issues due to the amount of vinyl being pressed in time for RSD. This goes back to the quality issue. Such huge demand and time pressure can only result in inferior products.
There has been the argument that the mastering of music destined for vinyl isn’t up to the standard of the LP’s produced back in their heyday. Where it once was the only place the music was to be replicated, now it is made digitally (normally) and is just a computer file or a CD is created. The sound is not engineered for vinyl and the quality is not what it once was or should be. Unless you happen to be Third Man Records (a reason on its own to choose ‘Get Behind Me Satan” or the re-press of the first ever Elvis 45 on the 18th April). I cannot say I have, in the majority of cases, noticed a poor sound quality. There have been a couple that do seem to have been poorly re-mastered and in some instances the pressing has resulted in damage or it is poor and the amplification is distorted.
I suppose it does depend on your perspective of what RSD means. If it is the support of the independent record industry that appeals then it might look to you that this regular date in the music diary has been hijacked by the huge labels that need no help with their multi-million selling artists and even those successful smaller bands that have the power to shift a few hundred limited edition 7”. They are clogging up the pressing plants with an array of picture discs and one off special releases when labels with new music to release and try and sell are suffering.
On the other hand, you may be the young, teenage collector who will be outside your local participating record shop at 5.30am on the Saturday morning with your money from a part-time job burning a hole in your pocket, desperate for the CHVRCHES or Honeyblood 7”. In which case, this must be the longest month since you got your last Advent Calendar.
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