B-side obsessive and recorder player romantic, AARON LEE, discusses vinyl
I’ve often pondered the wonders of vinyl records. What makes them so attractive? Why do they continue to live on, while formats such as cassette died long ago? And do they really provide a fuller, richer sound than their digital counterparts?
These are all important queries, and sadly I can’t provide a definitive answer for them here. But what I can do is tell you exactly what makes vinyl so special for me.
Vinyl records are the epitome of collectables with form and function, sentimental value and historical importance. It’s that connection you feel when you touch it, your digits gently playing over the ridges of the concentric rings. Its presence when you lift it; lightweight, hard to the touch, but flexible and with enough volume to make a statement.
You can see the spaces between songs in the record’s grooves – not like a CD, where digital sound waves are sewn up on a plastic bagel and hidden from view. And if there was no such thing as visualisations or sound wave equalizers, watching records spin would probably be the most exciting visual representation of recorded music ever. It’s remarkable this technology, conceived more than a century ago, has the means to do what it does. With the flow of a quality instrumental on the deck, a record can become a mesmerising whirlpool as the matt vinyl reflects back at you, calling unceasingly too you until the needle reaches it’s exit.
My fascination with vinyl also comes from living in astonishment of the format’s heyday, from the early 20th century right through to the 1970s. My father owns stacks of old records from his days cruising London and Hastings for record stores and neighbour-disturbing speaker systems, and it didn’t take long for me to inherit his appreciation for musical discovery.
With vinyl being so versatile, they’ve long been used by producers for burning master copies and DJs for remixing music. Vinyl-exclusive tracks have also made them valuable finds in the underground scene, even today. Nothing out there can match the satisfaction of finding a limited release vinyl in a backstreet record store with a track or alternative version you’ve never heard before. And should you end up liking that track, the pleasure is as tingly as your first kiss all over again. Bliss.
And it is not just the presence of rarities and B-sides that give vinyl such pertinent value. Printed on to the front of a 12” sleeve, album artwork has never looked more impressive. When The Beatles released Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band the standard was set for album covers to be more than display housings for the media within – they could be ‘art’. From the compulsive hording of Jamie T’s Panic Prevention to the simple class of Barry White’s I’ve Got So Much To Give, the artwork on vinyl sleeves make surfing your music collection a joy unto itself.
Vinyl truly is something to be marvelled at. The romanticism of labels producing 7” and 10” records for only two tracks still makes me yearn for an age when vinyl ruled the high streets. And not just for the records or tracks themselves, but the whole culture of picking up new releases or seeking out hidden gems in record stores. I may be idolising, but it’s about as beautiful and euphoric a union as they come. And they are proof that cutting edge technology doesn’t always make old methods obsolete. So discover it, listen to it and cherish it, because vinyl really is special.
By Aaron Lee
Tags: vinyl
vinyl records are great!!!