During a week when we’re doing a bit of vinyl globetrotting, we’re going to keep the theme alive with The Plastics. Direct from South Africa.
“My love affair with vinyl started as a young kid, dancing around the living room to songs like “Another Brick in the Wall,” “Jumping Jack Flash,” and “Mother’s Little Helper.” My dad’s always had quite an extensive vinyl collection and I was immediately taken in by the warm as well as raw edge of the sounds emitting from the turntable. These days it feels like I’ve gone full circle as I listen almost constantly to LP’s in my room.
There’s something about the sounds of old recordings on vinyl that just encaptures the spirit of the music so much better than other formats. I guess when music was made in the 60’s and 70’s, the tape and cd hadn’t come out yet, so music was being recorded for the purpose of being played on vinyl. The vast majority of artists seem to go through the process of remastering their back catalogues in order to be compatible to modern standards, but this often weakens the quality of the sound in my opinion.
I’ve got the recently released remastered Beatles box set, but I still prefer to listen to the vinyl versions. Much has been made of the loudness wars (Google it if you don’t know what I mean) and a lot of current and/or remastered albums have become so compressed to compensate for this volume increase that sound quality has been compromised.
Call me a purist, but listening to an LP where you can imagine yourself in a room with the musicians, picking out every part they play, is the definition of beauty in music. There seems to be so much more dynamic range in vinyl releases (the soft parts are softer and the loud parts are louder.) Just listen to a Doors album and you’ll know what I mean.
As far as modern recordings go on vinyl, unfortunately I don’t have too much listening experience, as it is very difficult to get your hands on anything new in South Africa, unless you import them. Perhaps the demand in this country doesn’t justify music stores selling vinyl. A great pity, but it seems there are few collectors out there in this country.
The Plastics | Caves (Radio Edit)
As far as our band goes, we’ve always had the idea of pressing limited edition cassettes or vinyl versions of our releases. So look out for that in the future!
So, go home, throw away that new chart topping album, and put on a Chuck Berry LP instead. You won’t be sorry!”
—Karl Rohloff
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