From The Desk Of The Brian Jonestown Massacre‘s Anton Newcombe: “I was asked to be a guest editor for MAGNET, one of the few publications I still respect since it was founded, so kudos for that. I was told I could write about anything in the world that interests me. So I am going to focus on the rebirth of the do-it-yourself music labels. Just like me and my own label, A Recordings, they have a strong belief system about releasing vinyl. I wanted to present seven labels and what they are up to right now. My questions were very simple: Who are you, what made you want to buck the trends, and what inspired you to release physical products. Enjoy.”
Newcombe: More Sonic Cathedral Records …
Nathaniel Cramp: Debates about royalties aside, I can appreciate why people use Spotify, iTunes, etc., for convenience, but I can pretty much remember where I bought every one of my records—no one will reminisce in years to come about where they were when they first downloaded or streamed an album. For me, releasing records on vinyl, or even tapes, is not about romanticising an essentially outdated format, or fetishising vinyl in terms of sound quality; it’s about trying to preserve that tangible, physical connection to the music. The life—and the soul—of the music can be found there.
All the records I release are special to me, but I am especially fond of this 12-inch of remixes of songs from Cheval Sombre‘s Mad Love album that I put out a couple years ago. A beautiful record that came in the most incredible artwork by Sharon Lock. For this EP, we took the concepts of the original and remixed everything—the Mad Love handwriting, based on the heartbreaking letters of psychiatric patient Emma Hauck were made into an infinite spiral, while the increasingly transparent layers of the original were inverted. We now have a see-through sleeve made of simulator paper and printed with gold, with a beautiful purple vinyl record showing through. The music is rather good, too—remixes by Justin Robertson, the time and space machine and Tom Furse from the horrors—and the whole package, which is no doubt more expensive than the original “Blue Monday” 12-inch, is a beautiful work of art. The time and effort all totally worthwhile; a true labour of (mad) love.
