“I remember playing with my parents’ turntable as a kid. They had boxes and boxes of old records that I’m sure they assumed they’d eventually never have any use for after all those albums gradually became available on CD, and I recall marveling at the fact that you could see, right there on the record, exactly where the information was that would tell the needle to tell the machine to tell the speakers what sounds to make.”
“Long songs were thick, short songs were narrow; a visible scratch would mean a corresponding skip in the audio. I would flip the things back and forth for hours, staring mesmerized at the slowly spinning discs, thinking there was something so thrilling about being able to physically see and feel what a musical recording would sound like.
I am now an adult, and I write instrumental music about landscape—it’s a funny niche to have fallen into, but one I’ve found extremely gratifying for years now. For the first several years I was doing this, I mostly focused (largely without meaning to) on big places: national parks, oceans, rivers, wilderness areas, and vast plains, but with my new project, an album I released in April called The Trouble With Wilderness, I tried making a change.
I was concerned that I might be reinforcing an impression among my audience members that nature was something exotic and separate from the world they knew—something to go and visit rather than to appreciate where you find it—and so to correct this, I tried writing about small places: weeds growing out of the sidewalk, gardens, roadside plants, and other places where it’s harder to say exactly what is wild and what is not.
Bologna, IT | Bologna, is a desire for vinyl: so the record shops come back to life: The wind of the pandemic was also felt in record stores. Those businesses that have been trying to survive the decline in sales, e-commerce sites and streaming for years. A difficult period that the owners of some Bolognese stores tell us, while the scratched music of the Clash returns to echo. Pleasant surprises and the will to overcome this period as well. …“Obviously it was a very hard period, – says Emanuele Gambardella – but by now we have turned 17 and our customers, whom I never tire of thanking, have always followed us and allow us to survive”. Discobolandia is a shop that offers used and new and among the most successful titles in recent months is the reissue of Mack Porter “Peace on you”, a very rare record from 1972 with a fantastic cover and Paul Rodgers’ tribute to Muddy Waters with the collaboration of many artists. In fact, it is vinyl that reigns supreme in the store to the detriment of the compact disc, now towards the 
You Can Now Build Your Own Record Player Using a Household 3D Printer: The vinyl revival inspired a lot of companies and the British startup Frame Theory 3D is one of the many to catch the wave. The company created a do-it-yourself (DIY) turntable kit that is 3D printed. The kit is called The SongBird Turntable and you can find it on Kickstarter. Frame Theory 3D already managed to exceed its initial goal of approximately $14,000, as the project got funded immediately and raised over $28,000 so far. And there are still 28 days left, which can only be good news for the startup. The SongBird turntable is a fully functional record player that can be made with almost any domestic 3D printer. The minimum build volume required is 220 X 220 X 50 mm (8.6 x 9.6 x 1.9 in). The necessary electronic parts are completely solderless, to make the building process as user-friendly as possible. Moreover, the kit comes with clear instructions that will guide you throughout the entire operation. 
The music on “No Longer” is dark, and the ’90s kids in the room might hear some influences in the way of Enigma, or late-stage Duran Duran, and Frank is happy if that’s what you hear because he loves those sounds from the 1990s as well which he fuses into his own subterranean musical landscape.
Redwood City, CA | Fire at Redwood City record store considered suspicious, investigators say: An early Wednesday morning fire is being called suspicious by Redwood City fire investigators. A popular peninsula record store was damaged in the blaze. Investigators questioned a man near the fire scene to see if he had any involvement. The store’s owner says he’s lucky the flames didn’t wipe out his record collection, and part of the Peninsula’s culture. “Down the road, people many want them, hard copies of the music they grew up with,” said Gary Saxon, owner of The Record Man. Wearing an eyepatch and a western hat, Saxson is part curator, and part record sales guru. The inside of his Redwood City store reflects a time when vinyl, not digital downloads was the way to experience music. “You didn’t just cherry-pick one or two songs, generally, that you liked. You would sit down with a group of friends and listen to that whole album side,” said Bruce Barber, general manager of WNHU-FM, the student radio station at the University of New Haven. For the most part, Saxon’s irreplaceable collection, dating back a hundred years, was spared from the Wednesday morning fire. The resulting second lease on business life means more turns for 
Dallas, TX | Dallas’ vinyl heyday brings memories of a record of a good time: Before technology evolved, the only way to buy your favorite tunes was at the record store. For many generations of music fans, the only way to get a hold of their favorite artist’s latest release was to sift through aisles of records. Record shops not only introduced audiences to new genres of music, but were places for fans to gather. While some were national chains, others were local favorites that were run by North Texas music lovers. The Dallas Morning News takes a look back into its archives to remember the joy of discovering new music through a listening booth and the hours lost searching through vinyl. The Melody Shop: The Melody Shop not only held a vast music selection, but it was also one of NorthPark Center’s inaugural stores on opening day in 1965. The store was already an established name in Dallas where they made their debut in 1941 at 205 North Ervay. In addition to records, the store also sold musical players and instruments so customers could experience both being the entertainer and the audience. All of this came together when they opened 
NEW RELEASE PICK: V/A, Arc Mountain (Hausu Mountain / Deathbomb Arc) This release, a benefit with all profits going to the Last Prisoner Project (a nonprofit committed to cannabis criminal justice reform), features artists from the Deathbomb Arc and Hausu Mountain labels in collaboration, with the cassette released by Hausu Mountain and the CD by Deathbomb Arc. Contributors include Dustin Wong, Margo Padilla aka I.E., They Hate Change, J Fisher, Fielded, Signor Benedick the Moor, TALSounds, Angry Blackmen, George Chen, Jonathan Snipes, White Boy Scream and more, with particularly heavy input from Fire-Toolz and Khaki Blazer. The contents range from wild blasts of underground hip-hop to varied strains of avant-pop to bent electronics to noisy soundscapes, with some instances of overlap and the uniting bonds being the liberating spirit of experimentation and a clear disdain for the soul-sucking rigidity of norms, both musical and societal. Upon repeated listens, the gripping assemblage of twisted teamwork (mostly twos but a couple threes) coheres into a larger statement of considerable power. A-
REISSUE/ARCHIVAL PICKS: BMX Bandits, Star Wars (Last Night From Glasgow) Headed by sole constant member Duglas T Stewart and with input on this album from Francis McDonald and Norman Blake of Teenage Fanclub and Gordon Keen and Eugene Kelly of Eugenius (Kelly was also in The Vaselines), BMX Bandits are one of indie pop’s finest cult bands, but with a refined blend of kindheartedness and twee tendencies that inspired many to reject them. Although there is a sense of the awkward in Stewart’s vocals (which has resulted in comparisons to Jonathan Richman, though they don’t sound alike to my ear), it never comes of as a mannerism, and that’s cool. What definitely not awkward is Stewart’s songwriting, which blossoms beyond the standard indie pop jangle. One example is “Extraordinary,” (sure to drive twee-haters up a wall), which sounds a little like young Dan Treacy if he was heavy into Nilsson and bubblegum pop rather than Syd Barrett. And instrumentally, the flare-ups of baroque strings remind me a bit of Big Star’s Third. And that’s just dandy. First time on vinyl outside of Japan. A-
V/A, Made to Measure Vol.1 (Crammed Discs) As part of Crammed Discs’ 40th anniversary, here’s a reissue on vinyl and compact disc of the inaugural entry in the Belgian label’s series dedicated to music that either could’ve been or deliberately was made as a soundtrack to other artforms, e.g. film, theater, dance, and even a fashion show, as is the case with this album’s track by Benjamin Lew, “A la recherche de B.” The other contributors are Minimal Compact, with four tracks commissioned for live dance; Aksak Maboul, with the album highlight “Scratch Holiday,” supposedly crafted (with a turntable, a ’60s pop 45, and orange marmalade) to soundtrack a movie, and six tracks intended to accompany a theatrical play; and Tuxedomoon, with three cuts composed for a documentary film. The guest violin by Jeannot Gillis (of Julverne and Univers Zero) for Minimal Compact, who are sequenced first, lends an appealing circularity, as Tuxdeomoon (and violin) close side two. But in fact, as the record plays, the sound is quite unified as it stirs thoughts of Rock in Opposition, Ralph Records, and early ’80s avant-pop in general. A-
Telex, This Is Telex (Mute) The best way to experience Telex is probably by soaking up one of their songs in a larger mix of material, like during some cat’s late night college radio show, in the midst of a friend’s mixtape, or as spun by a DJ in a club while waiting patiently for the headliner. Over the years, I’ve heard a few people opine that Telex was a novelty act, a conclusion drawn essentially because of their penchant for interpreting the material of others in the then nascent electronic pop style. I disagree. Taken individually, Telex’s songs are frequently pleasant, partly through catchiness but also due to the enduring appeal of their formative aura. But when heard sandwiched between the songs of others, Telex sticks out, largely because they were operating with a different sensibility. The trio’s versions of “La Bamba” (included on this LP/ CD compilation) and “Rock Around the Clock” (which isn’t, giving hopes for a follow-up volume) underscore the non-angsty ’50s-ish R&R spirit they brought to the scene. But there’s more to Telex, like a sweet version of Sparks’ “The Number One Song in Heaven.” A-
Melbourne, AU | A vinyl lover’s guide to Melbourne’s best specialty record stores: For all your genre-specific vinyl needs. There’s no greater pleasure than an afternoon spent rifling through the stacks at a local record shop. Luckily for wax heads, mild enthusiasts and newcomers just dipping their toes into the rapid, winding river that is vinyl obsession, Melbourne has hundreds of shops to choose from. Whether your eyes are on hardcore, hip hop or funk, you can bet there’s several locations with the expertise, knowledge and – of course – the stock, to guide you to your vinyl Valhalla. While a really good dig is second to none, sometimes we know exactly what we want. Or, at least, the general genre gist we’re after. So, we’ve taken the liberty of collating all of Melbourne’s specialty record stores, selected the best, then divvied them up by genre(ish), for your 
London, UK | Grooves in the heart: We investigate the UK vinyl revival, one of the greatest comebacks on record. They are cumbersome and quite faffy to grasp, scratchable to death by uninitiated hands and – unless crackle-doused, bargain bucket specials are your bag – a costly way to hear music. Yet last year UK vinyl records sales increased for the 13th year in a row, according to trade music body BPI, despite streaming now accounting for 80% of the country’s music consumption. In fact, revenue from vinyl sales is set to overtake that of CDs for the first time since the late Eighties. And all this from century-plus-old shellac discs that looked to be rolling out of aural and cultural relevance during the CD-dominated Nineties. Jon Tolley, 43, Banquet Records owner in Kingston said: “It’s quite strange to have an industry which is based on something that in some ways is perceived as archaic but in some ways has almost gone full circle where it’s such a reaction to how modern things are. “And it’s not people who’ve been left behind who don’t understand the digital revolution, it’s people who fully embrace it and are 
