The important thing about the much-discussed vinyl comeback is not to think of it as some unambiguous triumph, like one of those great wildlife success stories where a creature that had been confined to the southeast corner of a desolate marsh spreads across an entire country within years of being reintroduced. Vinyl as a format still needs nurturing. The ecosystem has been shaken by high-street closures, as independents fight on; the vinyl sections in the supermarkets tend to stock the same tiny selections of surefire bestsellers; the vinyl chart is dominated by a strain of rock-tastic nostalgia. There’s the sneaking suspicion it would be easy to slip into a vinyl existence of endless Liam Gallagher albums and remasters of Rumours, but there are still a heartening number of bold pioneers making the effort to find new ways to get different music to fresh audiences – the people for whom making a record is about more than pressing something to vinyl and then sending it to a shop to see what happens next.
THE SEVEN-INCH SPECIALIST