The New York Times identified a new tribe of young consumers buying vinyl last month in a feature headlined �Another Spin for Vinyl’, and it’s brought a few of the medium’s most dedicated proponents to the fore, including forthcoming Australian visitor and longtime prog icon Danny Howells.
“The ranks of vinyl devotees are growing,” the Times reported. “While the niche may still be small measured against overall sales of recorded music, the surge of interest in vinyl – and, particularly, its rising cachet among young listeners – is providing a rare glimmer of hope in a hemorrhaging industry. Young vinyl collectors said digital technology had made it easy for anyone – even parents – to acquire vast, esoteric music collections,” the Times continued. “In that context, nothing seems hipper than old-fashioned inconvenience.”
The article prompted washed up NME вЂ?enfant terrible’ Steven Wells to write an unusually hilarious rant against the format the Guardian, in which he ranted and raved against vinyl’s вЂ?sad’ return. “Vinyl is back from the dead – scratchier and crapper than ever, reeking of urine and seething with maggots but, alas, undeniably alive,” he seethed. “Ask yourself this: Do you know anybody who still buys vinyl that isn’t a total dick? If you answered: вЂ?Excuse me, buying vinyl doesn’t make you a dick,’ then you are almost certainly a dick who buys vinyl.”
Vinyl buyer Danny Howells insisted he didn’t bother reading Wells’ article. “Obviously that means that Sven Vath, Norman Jay, Gilles Peterson, DJ Shadow, etc are dicks? The twat’s obviously got nothing else to write about,” Howells quipped. “I still play a lot of vinyl, along with CD, and I do so because I still BUY a lot of vinyl – something that a lot of DJs don’t do,” Danny continued. “I enjoy mixing with vinyl, I enjoy the sound, and I looking through a record bag is a LOT easier than rifling through a hard drive, especially after a few drinks.”
Danny said the issue of whether clubs even have turntables anymore remains вЂ?unpredictable’ and said he still gets wound up вЂ?when certain DJs feel superior because they’re embracing technology’. “The art of DJing is being lost as literally anyone can get some cracked software and steal some tunes and pass as a DJ,” he continued. “No-one really knows how to warm up or sculpt a night anymore, and that’s not really a good thing. Programming doesn’t mean anything to a lot of people. If I had the choice between seeing somebody playing 8 monotonous loops at once, or Sven Vath playing amazing music off vinyl, Sven Vath would win my vote hands down,” Danny finished.
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