Vinyl: Purchases!

Yesterday I bought some records! The experience of going into Sister Ray Records was equal parts exciting and terrifying, a voyage to a new world with no idea whether you will be welcome or even if you'll like it. It reminded me of when I started to collect comics - rows and rows of things to buy with little real knowledge of what you wanted and whether they'd have it, all of which were being flicked through by people who seemed to know exactly what was going on and what they wanted.

"I get by because of the people who make a special effort to shop here - mostly young men - who spend all their time looking for deleted Smith singles and original, not rereleased - underlined - Frank Zappa albums. Fetish properties are not unlike porn. I'd feel guilty taking their money, if I wasn't... well... kinda one of them."

I tried not to think about it too much, not to worry too much about my collection being perfect from word go, just to relax and see what they had. First thing to note of course is they don't have the infinite range of choice that we have grown used to thanks to the internet, and then there's first/second hand to consider, again much like collecting comics. Obviously I had thought quite a lot in advance about what records I might like. I thought 3 or maybe 4 would be good to start the collection off and in no time at all I had found 4 I wanted. I briefly questioned whether I needed them all, which obviously I didn't, but I wanted them so I bought them anyway.

The National - Boxer

I first bought Boxer (on CD) on a whim, I'd never heard of, or heard anything by, The National but I wanted some new music and the cover spoke to me. This might be your kind of thing, it said, give it a go. Turns out it was a thoroughly awesome album start to finish. I have listened to it more than any other album in my collection, according to iTunes I've heard the whole album over 250 times and one of the songs 400 times, of course I've also listened to it on other computers iPod and CD. So yeah it's an album I needed to own on vinyl. Alligator and High Violet have similarly high play counts and are both spectacular albums, the pre-Boxer albums are good but don't really measure up. I haven't listened that much to their latest album Trouble Will Find Me much yet but am enjoying it greatly so far.

Beck - Guero

Beck has for a long time been a favourite artist but picking an album to have in the collection was always going to be tough! The styles of the albums he's produced are so varied it's pretty hard to compare them. Mellow Gold certainly has palace in my heart as the first Beck album I owned and obviously includes Loser but if you're looking at early Beck it's hard not to go straight for Odelay as a classic with instantly recognisable cover art to boot. Midnight Vultures despite some excellent tunes probably comes across as too electronic to really fit listening on vinyl, somehow it would seem at odds. If inclined more towards a full album experience with something more melodic to wash over the listener Sea Changes or Morning Phase are both very good options and to most people probably sound least Beck-ish.

I've only seen Beck play live once and it was a truly amazing experience, the high point of which being whilst Beck himself did a little acoustic number, Golden Age, on guitar the rest of the band sat down at a laid table and were served food as they listened to Beck play. Then, slowly at first, they began to tap along, growing louder as they chinked glasses and hit cutlery against crockery building to the massive percussive sound of Clap Hands. All of which was repeated in miniature by marionettes at the front of the stage, this in turn was filmed and projected behind the band so you could watch the whole thing unfold in triplicate! Guero was the album Beck was touring with when I saw him, it might not end up being the only Beck I buy but it's an excellent start.

Radiohead - The Bends

When thinking about buying/owning vinyl it's very hard to not give in to nostalgia. I suppose it is in its very nature nostalgic - hearkening back to a previous technology which somehow is better than anything and everything since. For me that nostalgia manifests in two ways: firstly in classic albums that were originally released on vinyl and secondly in albums that were important to me, favourites listened on constant repeat through sixth form and university. Radiohead and Portishead are both very firmly in that second category. The Bends is one of a few albums that reminds me of sixth form and uni in equal measures, for me it is the quintessential Radiohead album. Definitely worth listening in its entirety, whilst all the songs are excellent somehow the album adds up to that much more. Portishead's Dummy is still an exceptional album and I probably don't go back to it often enough. At the time it was something entirely new to me, I kind of music that was unlike anything else I listened to. Haunting and beautiful. I suspect it will benefit from the extra depth and deliberateness of vinyl.

Portishead - Dummy

I haven't listened to them yet, but that's my plan for the rest of Saturday!

Vinyl: Desert Island Discs

"...what really matters is what you like, not what you are like... Books, records, films - these things matter."

The ownership of a record player raises the obvious and important question - which albums do I want (or need) to own on vinyl? I like collecting things so this has dangerous cost implications and must be carefully controlled! I have a very large digital music collection which will remain as the body of the collection, in fact I don't imagine owning any thing on vinyl that I don't already have on some other medium.

So (and excuse the pretension here) but the record collection will be reserved for albums that warrant listening to in their entirety and not just hearing piecemeal. Albums which will benefit from the visceral experience and depth of sound (again excuse the pretension). Favourite albums which are the heart of the collection.

So what is (or would be) in your collection?

If I was a more measured man I might try to limit myself to a new album a month/quarter/year but I don't have that kind of discipline so I'll make no such promise. My (more in depth) thoughts on what I might buy will follow and after that I might even review some vinyl!

Vinyl

Stephen listens. I would excuse any of my friends for not listening to me, I talk a lot. I hope most of what I say is worth saying but I'll admit to rambling and saying whatever's on my mind often without thinking it through properly first. You'd be forgiven if you couldn't keep up and just tuned out now and again, but Stephen listens. More than that he takes things in and in the catacombs of his mind he has detailed files. Some time ago I regaled Stephen with my plans for when I win the lottery - the central premise of which was using the wide and varied expertise of my friends to acquire the top things in their respective arenas, in return for their help I would buy them the same. I would ask Stephen to design a sound system centred around a turntable. 

Music is very important to me.

In his late teens Stephen had worked for Technosound in MK and has never really recovered. His love of sound and all things audio possibly exceeds his love of music, his knowledge and understanding is in-depth, and he has an exceptional ear. I've previously utilised his expertise to find some very good headphones without paying the world for them. You can take a dip into his mind at his blog ThinJetty. I have made no secret of how much I covet Stephen's sound system and have always wanted a turntable of my own but with my entire music collection digitally a record player seemed a decadence that I couldn't justify. 

We've always agreed that the physicality of vinyl is fundamentally pleasing, the practical nature of how sound is produced means so much more than the 1's and 0's of digital music. Hearing the needle make sound without amplification gives me a weird amount of joy because I can understand how it works, simple mechanics and vibration in action - the same as dragging your nail down a rough surface. There's also something very pleasing about the deliberateness of putting on a record that has been lost with the convenience of digital music. It's too easy I find for music to be played without much thought - not sure what you want to hear? Just hit shuffle, thousands of songs at the touch of a button. But some albums, good albums, deserve to be listened to in their entirety. There's artistry in the music that goes far beyond single songs. Add to that richer sounds and album sleeves big enough to do the artwork justice and listening to vinyl is clearly an experience that goes far beyond just listening to a song. 

"Life is like a record... it goes around and around."

Anyway Stephen had listened and been amused by my idea and it turns out had stored it away for later use. When I got married Stephen and his better half gifted us 2 lottery tickets and, just in case they weren't winners, a record player! It is a Linn LP12 reconditioned by Peter Swain of Cymbiosis, a turntable born in '81 - a nod to the year my new wife's birth. My wife it should be noted has been extremely cool about the gift which went quickly from "our gift from the Broadhursts" to "my record player". In her words: "they bought something they knew would make you happy knowing that that would make me happy!" She went on to say that we ought to get somewhere proper for it to live - evidence, if evidence was needed that I'm very lucky. 

Stephen listens and, now I have a Linn LP12 Record player, I can do likewise.

If you want to hear Stephen talking about Hifi you can find him at ThinJetty