Where Are All The Hot Twelve Inches?

The "vinyl revival" is in full swing, but at what cost?

Here’s something I’ve been thinking about for a while - when was the last time you saw a *really* hot new dance 12”? A record that flew out of the shops, became impossible to find online and instantly started going for £30 on Discogs. I’m struggling to think of one if I’m honest. Maybe that Jai Paul EP on XL, but that’s more of an album really isn’t it?

I’m sure there’s still tunes out there that do it, maybe in scenes that I’m unaware of, and I see reissues of old tracks shift hundreds of copies in a few minutes online on a fairly regular basis, but what was the last really hyped up house or techno tune that sold out almost immediately? Even fairly reliable candidates like Burial releases rarely go in a flash any more. Labels like Acting Press and Hessle Audio haven’t put a 12” out in a hot minute.

Why is this? I suspect there’s two main reasons, firstly being that not many people are DJing this kind of stuff on vinyl any more - it’s widely available digitally from legit or other sources, and as music streaming continues to evolve it will presumably become a more popular method of playing music for DJ’s, after all, who wants to have to carry two heavy USB’s full of tunes into a club any more? (I did successfully once as a teenager manage to carry a DJs record boxes into a club to avoid getting ID’d on the door, cheers Kev from Vibe 106.4 FM - East Anglia’s biggest and best dance radio station!) Even the most DJ-friendly of digital stores - Beatport - is getting into streaming now, although uptake doesn’t seem huge from what I’ve seen.

The main reason though for the lack of dance 12” hype though is the sheer cost of the format nowdays. You won’t find many 12”s (certainly not in London record shops anyway) for much less than £15, and the ones that are sub-£10 now are few and far between. When a 12” was £7 or £8 (and I’m aware people older than me would have paid even less for them) you’d take a chance on buying it for one good tune, but at £15 it’s a different matter. I recently went into town and picked up four 12”s I’d been after and it cost more than £60. For a label it doesn’t make much sense to press a 12” when for basically the same price you can press an album instead and sell it for three times the price.

The other week I saw on Twitter an article from Muzik magazine asking DJs about their record buying habits - Twitch and David Holmes both said they spent around £25-£30 a week, that’s hardly enough for two plates these days. Funnily enough Richie Hawtin claimed to be spending $200, this was back in 1997 though, so pre the ‘downloaded for r.hawtin’ days. I’d be surprised if Hawtin spends $200 a year on tunes now the amount he must get sent.

Is there a way to fix this? I don’t know. For all the articles proclaiming that vinyl sales are at their highest level in decades it’s not the humble dance 12” that’s fuelling this. It’s pop artists and major label heritage acts. Of the top selling vinyl records in the UK last year the top 10 featured Rumours and Dark Side Of The Moon. How many more copies of these records can they sell? Who doesn’t have them? The rest of the Top 10 was pretty much as you’d imagine, Taylor Swift, Lana Del Ray, Lewis Capaldi, The Rolling Stones… I don’t know if 12”s even count that heavily towards the chart any more - many of them won’t be barcoded, and only a handful of indie record shops are chart return shops.

Ironically, the “vinyl revival” (I hate that phrase, but it’s got a wikipedia page and everything so I guess it’s sticking) is kind of a victim of it’s own success. As the majors realise they can flog 70’s & 80’s records all over again to people they convinced to throw them all away and buy the album on CD in the 90’s instead they’re taking up capacity in the pressing plants - what job would you want to take on, a short run of 300 12”s from a small label or 10,000 copies of Rumours with a guaranteed re-order in six months time? Record shops, despite the increased sales, still have to deal with increases in the costs of everything else you need to run a business these days, so when it comes to buying records to stock what do you think they’re going to purchase - twenty copies of a dance 12” that might take weeks to shift or twenty copies of Rumours they know they’ll sell through in a couple of weeks. I don’t mean to slag off Rumours in any way - it’s an utterly fantastic album, but you all know that, you’ll all own a copy on vinyl, right?

After The Affair

A quick interlude before we get to the new music - it was great to see a fresh interview with Kiran Sande from Blackest Ever Black about his new label Lost Domain. This label profile on Bandcamp was an interesting read, and whilst Lost Domain is about as far as you can sonically from Blackest I feel some of the sprit of BEB runs through it. Karl O’Connor called it “the last great British independent label” and I’m definitely inclined to agree. At the risk of blowing my own trumpet you can read my love letter to Blackest Ever Black here.

My Name Would Be Antonio, And All My Bridges I Would Burn…

Here’s this weeks new and new-ish tunes then. I’m still playing catch-up a bit from the past couple of weeks, so some of this stuff might be a little old (not that there’s anything wrong with old music - I want to share stuff I’ve discovered here as much as new releases).

The Streets - Turn The Page (Overmono Remix) [XL Recordings]

Overmono are no stranger to the hype 12” phenomenon mentioned above. They’ve recently turned in a remix of The Streets Turn The Page. It’s… pretty decent, the original is one of the all-time greatest album opening tracks ever (it’s criminal that Leon Vynehall used the phrase Be Brave, Clench Fists as the name of a fairly tepid Deep Burnt rip-off on his Music For The Uninvited EP back in 2014). Anyway, Overmono, I like them, they’ve found a formula for UK-centric club bangers that sound immense on big systems. I think I prefer their individual solo projects if I’m honest, but the Overmono tunes are perfectly enjoyable too. Someone I know described their I Have A Love remix as “Connor McGregor Techno” which I did find funny though.

Tutu Ta - The Shrine [Long Gone]

What is THIS?! Dub, Techno, Industrial EBM type stuff all rolled into one package. This is the kind of 12” that should be hyped up. Absolutely killer debut from a new London based label. These are all new productions but to be honest if you’d told me they were recorded any time between 1979-1994 I would have believed you.

British Murder Boys - It’s What You Hide [Downwards]

Another single from the upcoming BMB album. It’s probably the album I’m most excited about this year, and I’ve heard enough of it to know that it’s almost certainly going to feature highly in my (and probably a lot of your) end of year lists. Can’t wait to get the LP of this and blast it loud. Apologies to my neighbours in advance.

Demdike Stare x Dolo Percussion - DOLO DS [DDS] / Carrier - In Spectra [Carrier]

I don’t like to write too much about physical only releases here but couldn’t let these two go unmentioned. I think the Carrier is coming digitally in a week or two so I’ll write more about that then, but the Demdike x Dolo record is something special. If you like drums and wicked rhythms you’re in for a treat - all I can say is listen to this.

Annie Hogan - Bat Cave ‘83 [Reel Torque]

Another release without any digital but something I’ve been listening to loads lately, this mixtape takes in about every decent genre under the sun and is a mix of fantastic tunes that would have been played in London’s goth club the Batcave back in the early 80’s. There’s a fantastic passage on here which takes in Violent Femmes Gone Daddy Gone, Scott Walker’s version of Jackie and John Barry’s Beat Girl theme. I’ve recreated it in the playlist, shouldn’t work but it does. Anyway, the tape’s long sold out, but seek and ye shall find if you’re after a digital file.

Peverelist - Pulse Phase [Livity Sound]

I’ve not thought much about Livity Sound for a while but it’s good to see they’re still going putting out records. Peverelist is a name familiar to many, and his new EP sounds pretty decent, a bit richer than some of his sparser tunes, and with a Detroit style twinge to it. Thought I might as well share some of my old Pev favourites too.

VA - Kuboraum Sound Residency [Kuboraum]

I love a good old compilation, I’m not gonna lie. Putting together a decent comp is an artform in itself and one that’s becoming lost in the age of playlists. Simply, comps don’t really work on streaming services, but it’s good to see certain labels stick with the format. Anyway, this one from Kuboraum takes in new trax from Lucy Railton, Regis, Moin, V/Z, Space Afrika and Ziur. That’s what you’d call up my street.

As always, thanks for reading and subscribing. I’m always open for feedback or if you just want to chat about this stuff or recommend good tunes feel free to reach out!