(an Op-Ed from Moniqe D)

Outsourcing your goods to another country is not the best practice. Products going overseas are out of a company’s control in so many ways. Turn-time issues, safety of workers, additional resources used to ship items back, and most importantly American jobs taken away from American workers. These are just a few of the reasons Record Pressing is keeping it local. All of our vinyl manufacturing is done here in California where we can keep a close eye on it and make sure we are not hiking up prices on an unnecessary journey overseas. One main reason we do this is our concern of safety practices of vinyl facilities in other countries. Laws in other countries are not always up to par with the U.S’s strong EPA regulations when it comes to producing vinyl records. Another major factor is, child labor laws. The US is very strict about the age of persons working in a factory environment where other countries may not be. Additionally there are major environmental concerns in working with non-US based factories that any thoughtful, responsible person/ company simply cannot support. A prime example of this concern are chemicals used in the process to make vinyl records. These can be transported with or without knowledge and into your home, because the product has not passed the vigorous safety baseline requirements that the US upholds on its own manufacturing companies.

If all this was not enough to convince you to shop local, the carbon footprint to ship a heavy product is much higher due to the additional transportation it will require. Of course on this journey the product will also potentially pickup export taxes and shipping costs, taking more money out of the hands of Americans.

So, why does it matter to shop local? We are still in a down economy when we need to support American companies. It supports our own music industry, keeps food on the table in America, keeps inflation lower, and our products safer. Though you may normally not think about this when pressing a record. This thought process should be a part of your day to day living, even when deciding where to press a record.

-Monique Dolan

Our thoughts go out to the family of a visionary that changed our worlds. We will miss you Steve-

1. Light In The Attic: A young but fierce reissue label. Founded in 1990, this label has been extremely active and ingenious in their selection of their catalog. LITA’s standards are high and it shows in the details of their product. They also act as a distribution company for other common minded labels, banning together to insure success.

2. 4 Men with Beards: What makes this label one of the best in the business is their ability to offer so many different genres, but they all seem to have some sort of cross section, releasing titles from artists like Otis Redding, Bob Dylan, Stiff Little Fingers, Funkadelic, and De La Soul. Who are these men with beards? That I cannot say, but they do good work.

3. Sundazed: Founded by Bob Irwin and his wife Mary 1989. Bob became well known for his ability to restore the recordings from vinyl records for the CD format. This grabbed the attention of major labels, and allowed them to reissue their back catalogs on the (at the time) new format. Since then Sundazed has been successfully releasing records from the 1950s to 1970s.

4. Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs: Audiophile would be the best way to describe MFSL. All masters are created from a combination of first generation tape and a proprietary restoration system to improve sound quality. Most of their catalog from before 1980 was pressed at the JVC plant in Japan using their top secret compound called “Supervinyl”. The plant closed in the early 80s and the recipe for compound still remains a mystery.

5. Rhino: Probably the most well known reissue label. Releasing classic American rock albums from the likes of The Ramones, Chicago, and Led Zeppelin, their catalog is just massive. Not only are they keeping these titles in print, but they offer custom packaging and box sets, that will make any collector go crazy.

6. Speakers Corner Records: Dedicated to keeping the MPS records catalog in print. MPS records catalog dates from 1920 the early 1980s, with genres ranging from all forms of jazz to afro beat.

7. Music Matters: Blue Note and Impulse reissue label. Consistent in their ways, all records are pressed on 180g, cut at 45rpm, and are contained in jackets designed to perfection, creating a product any picky collector would be pleased with.

8. Plain Recordings: Awesome rock reissue label from the Bay Area. With releases from artists like Mr. Bungle, The Breeders, and The Lemonheads, their records are by no means lost or hard to find, they just belong on vinyl.

9. Numero Group: With over 60 titles to date. This label cares to be known for their attention to details, often times including more than just a high quality 180g LP in their packaging – it’s not uncommon to see a full product including 45s, DVDs, and cassettes.

10. Smithsonian Folkways: Originally founded by Moses Asch in 1948. The label was donated to the Smithsonian in 1987, under the agreement that none of the 2,000+ titles would ever go out of print. The label specializes in world, jazz, folk, and blues.

Vinyl releases are what Suburban Home Records are known for. (That and the Drunk Dial Hotline on their website: http://www.suburbanhomerecords.com/). We asked Owner Virgil Dickerson, why pressing vinyl is important to him.

“I love the sound of vinyl, I love that you must devote your entire attention to listening to a record, and I love that in this crazy, fast-paced world we live in, when you sit down to listen to a record, for me, it’s therapy. I love the convenience of digital music, but with vinyl, you get a completely different experience and for all those reasons and more, I love putting out records.”

Suburban Home’s latest release Introducing by Kay Kay and His Weather Undergound has been in heavy rotation on our office turntable. I was thrilled to catch Kay Kay and His Weather Underground play Bottom of the Hill a few weeks ago. We asked them why pressing vinyl is important to them as artists and this is what they had to say:

“It’s tangible- it adds to the sound in so many ways” said front man Kirk Huffman. “It makes listening to the music more of an experience.”

After the show, and in between the rush of fans storming the merch table, I was able to talk to Thomas Hunter. “When I was a kid, I would save my money and ride my bike to the record store to see what I could get. Records have always been a huge part of my life. When I listen to music, I listen to records, so when I make music I want to release it in that form.”

As I was leaving I overheard one fan asked for the new release on CD and the room got quiet. Thomas’s response to this: “Oh, you mean you want a mini record?”

To label Bosco Delrey’s debut LP as diverse would be an understatement and would be to sell short its startling and indefinable originality. Everybody Wah, out now on ever-present DJ/producer Diplo’s Mad Decent imprint, is a one of a kind amalgamation of wildly varying influences that unexpectedly, and at times miraculously, fuse to create thirteen unique, fuzz-drenched tracks of mildly lackadaisical, lo-fi garage-dance-rockabilly that bounces from psychedelic Southern boogie to punk rock to island-rhythm dancehall and back again without skipping a beat.

Delrey, a New Jersey transplant from Tennessee, recorded with Doug Easley (White Stripes, Wilco, Sonic Youth) in Memphis utilizing an arsenal of distorted and acoustic guitars, vintage synthesized instrumentation and a wide range of propulsive sampled drumbeats. His often soulful vocal drifts back in the mix throughout, heavy with delay, acting as the only connection between the eclectic track list.

“Don Haps” starts out with a thick, low-down Rock n’ Roll guitar groove and builds on a kick-heavy, handclap rhythm with piercing electric distortion and atmospheric synths. “Go Slow the Bones” breaks from an overdriven tom-driven pulse to a spaced-out xylophone and organ wash. Then, there’s the manic, nearly Kinks-esque gem, “Archebold Ivy,” in which a bouncing harpsichord is matched by a singsong vocal and topped by increasingly distorted synths and random electronic odds and ends that could be called pop if it wasn’t so bizarre. The great surprise of Everybody Wah is how undeniably catchy it all is. Be it the smooth doo-wop of “Insta Love” or the rabid, out and out dance explosion of “Cool Out,” Bosco Delrey has fashioned a refreshingly odd and casually danceable collection of idiosyncratic songs that would be equally at home with fans of both Sun Records and Beck, in the car or in the club.

“[Bosco is] a sort of garbage can Elvis from New Jersey… teaspoon craziness, a pinch of rockabilly, and full cup of soul dressed in a leather jacket. He can’t be topped as far as song writing… He’s doin’ the music I wish I could if I had bought a guitar.” -Diplo

Click here to view the embedded video.

Larry and His Flask hail from Oregon and have one of the most unique sounds ripping through the Northwest music scene right now. Their fourth full-length album All That We Know does anything but disappoint and really shows how far they’ve come from busking on the street. All fourteen tracks sound different than the one before it, most likely because of how many instruments this six-piece group plays, a total of ten instruments, along with each member lending their voice to the songs.

Some tracks that stick out are the short but sweet like “I’ll Be Gone”, a strong a cappella that quickly becomes a cacophony of strings over fast paced percussion, all lasting under two minutes. The band takes a less foot stomping, more seat swaying tone on “Slow It Down”, a vocal, feel-good ballad.

Larry and His Flask, along with local label Silver Sprocket, decided to get All That We Know pressed in three different colored vinyl: green, gold, and blue. So make sure you get your hands on these limited edition records quick!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Record Pressing is proud to announce its very own Anamanaguchi/Starscream split 7″ record was featured as the number one pre-order on Insound!

The limited white color vinyl pre-orders are only available through the online music retailer. Make sure to reserve your copy! Release date is set for June 21.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Brian Shimkovitz has been sharing his collection of rare tapes and vinyl from all over the world for a few years now (totally free online) but he also DJ’s them live all over the world, whether it’s in Brooklyn, Paris, or Ghana. He does it all simply because he wants more people to hear all this incredible music he scours the earth for, and he’s good at it. I found out about Awesome Tapes From Africa from a guy who had just spent the last three months living in a cave in the middle of the Arizona desert. Seriously. If you’ve got some funky Afrobeat you think is rare, send it his way. But odds are he’s already got it. I caught Brian while he was on tour in Europe and got to ask him some questions.

Record Pressing: So for those who don’t know, what is awesometapesfromafrica.blogspot.com?

Brian Shimkovitz: Awesome Tapes from Africa is a place to listen to and download interesting 
music you might not hear elsewhere.

RP: Very cool, and how did it all begin, what led you to global crate 
digging?

BS: I started doing the blog as a way to share the bizarre and fascinating music
 I picked up while living and studying in Ghana on two separate trips a few
 years ago. Since then I have been finding tapes around NYC and Paris and
 people have been sending them to me. I search all over Brooklyn for tapes, 
but in West Africa shops are all over the place. It’s a lot of fun talking 
to the men selling music because they let you listen whatever you want.

RP: Do you remember the first vinyl you got from Africa?

BS: I found a bunch of Nigerian Juju records for cheap when I was in college just 
visiting record stores here in NYC. They were dusty but amazing.

RP: So what does your vinyl collection look like today?

BS: I mostly collect and listen to disco and early house and techno 12″s.

RP: How does the sound quality of all these recordings compare from a 
cassette or CD to a vinyl?

BS: Some of the cassettes sound great, others are poorly duplicated or were 
taped from a record (so you can often hear the needle crackle). When I DJ 
this music it definitely sounds different from someone DJ’ing using super
clean vinyl or CDs.

RP: What’s the perception on vinyl out there? Is it an exhausted medium, or 
are artists still pressing them today?

BS: There aren’t any record pressing plants in West Africa any more, to my 
knowledge. There used to be a big music industry with most of the major 
labels running businesses there, but several factors contributed to their 
ultimate failure, including the rise of cassettes as a medium. Piracy is
 rampant in Africa.

RP: I heard you brought tons of American records to Ghana to trade, what was
 the idea behind that and how did it go?

BS: Well, I didn’t bring tons but I brought a few stacks and it was good fun
 sharing them with dudes I hung out with there. I traded some for African 
records because more younger guys are figuring out some foreigners are into
 collecting them. I traded a Nas record for an old super trashed Fela album I 
don’t have.

RP: Is there any vinyl out there that you’re still dying to get your hands
 on?

BS: I would love to find some vinyl of Boubacar Traore’s recordings.

RP: So to wrap things up, when’s your next trip?

BS: I hope to visit West Africa again in September. But who knows! It’s a long 
expensive journey.