Words About Things

The way that we feel about the different mediums used to transport songs can tell a lot about our age. I suppose it’s like how people think the television was better when they were young because when you were young even Neighbours was good.

In my experience those who are slightly older than me tend to talk about the warmth of vinyl and the relatively faceless nature of mp3s. They bemoan the loss of 12″ artwork and the smell of a record. Presumably they don’t mind only being able to listen to records at home and having to get up a flip them over half way through.

Then there are those (mostly younger than me) who will quite happily play an over compressed mp3 through the tiny speaker on their mobile phone. This wouldn’t bother me if they used headphones rather than blasting out the latest Basshunter abomination like a cheesy call-to-prayer to other cretins.

Personally my favourite medium is the mp3 for a variety of reasons. They are cheaper than CDs for a start (the fact that the record industry charged us £12+ for an album for all those years makes me less sympathetic about their current plight). They are much easier to get hold of, you can go from 1st listen to owning the track in minutes. Even if you count the cost of downloading via pay as you go mobile broadband the average album is cheaper than via any other medium.

You can also skip through files and rearange them into mixes and playlists. Whilst you could do this with tapes it took much longer and the eventually wore out. You can carry your entire music collection around in your pocket and listen to anything anywhere. On a recent train journey I took my laptop with a mobile broadband dongle and my mp3 collection. I felt like I had access to every song ever (bank balance permitting), stick that on your turntable

Long standing Washington DC record label Dischord is set to reissue much of it’s back catalog on vinyl. Dischord is one of the most respected independent labels having maintained it’s ethical approach for over 28 years. The Dischord back catalog includes a wealth of great bands such as Fugazi, Minor Threat, Q and Not U and Rites of Spring.

The reissues are due to ‘renewed interest’ in vinyl LPs from music fans not satisfied with low quality mp3s. The label, which is is co-owned by Ian MacKaye and Jeff Nelson, has also announced a price increase for their LPs from $10 to $11. They also offer digital downloads for around 4-7 dollars (£2-5 ) an album. Sales of the remastered LPs come with complimentary mp3 downloads so that fans can own the physical record and listen to it on mp3 players.

“Due to the renewed interest in vinyl LPs, especially for our more historic titles, Dischord Records is remastering and re-cutting much of our vinyl catalog here in the United States. We will begin by re-pressing current titles, and later re-issuing others, all re-cut at Chicago Mastering Service and featuring complimentary MP3 album downloads. Dischord has always enjoyed very high quality vinyl mastering. For many years much of our vinyl was mastered at Abbey Road Studios in London by our friend and partner John Loder, who passed away in 2005. But the metal-work that is used to press vinyl LPs wears with time and we decided with John’s passing it was time to bring these projects back home and pass the torch to Bob Weston and Jason Ward at Chicago Mastering Service. ”

The first re releases include Out Of Step and First 2 7″s by Minor Threat and the Faith/Void split. More information at Dischord.com