Why there's nothing better than a physical record collection

Music is a fundamentally different language to any other.

It’s used by music therapy practitioners to assist in managing health issues. Playing it activates regions of the brain simultaneously like nothing else. We can move to it, sit and appreciate it, engage with it in any number of ways, and cross-pollinate it across any number of faculties and disciplines. It is an inherent and intrinsic part of our daily lives.

There is as much in the physicality of music; that is, the nature of physically owning a record, for example, a CD or a MiniDisc (I know there are still a few of you purists out there!) Many of us are drawn to the idea of collecting. An object, after all, has a more tangible sense. Investing memories and emotions into a digital file is a very different sensation altogether.

Take the recent release of Ron Trent and Chez Damier’s Prescription Records collection Prescription: Word, Sound & Power. This is a stunning six-LP package that lives up to the sense of duty, care and attention to detail you might expect of such a product and label. It’s as close to a collector’s item as you’re likely to get: resplendent embossed packaging, poster, download code.

So much so that you might forgive the numerous flaws inherent in the overall package: compressed, soft audio across a number of tracks, largely in part to easily exceeding the universal benchmark for minutes per LP side, and thus affecting the sound quality quite dramatically. It’s disappointing to say the least, especially for two artisans of sound who so cleverly build and articulate moods through their compositions.

The warmth and complexity of their craft is best appreciated loud on a good system (like just about any music I imagine), whereupon layers of drum programming are realised. While Trent’s remarkable ear for syncopation, for example, might be clear to just about anyone conscious at the time, we lose out on really appreciating the synthesis of elements that gently push and pull us through these compositions.

And yet, to own a slice of history (and some bloody good music regardless), we’re still happy to fork out well over $100! It’s one of those beautiful ironies.

This week’s playlist

After peeping Danny Krivit’s excellent edit of ‘Flight Formation’, I sought out Soccer96’s debut LP As Above So Below, with its ethereal drum interludes and druggy blend of jazz and pop, at times recalling the finer moments of Gorillaz’s earlier instrumentals.

In the vein of funk contemporaries The Budos Band and Menahan Street Band, with a hint of Antibalas, are Orgone, who resist the conventions of new funk by blending their hip hop and soul sensibility into live loops and a versatile pastiche of their influences.

Lastly, lock into XLR8R’s latest XLR8R 494 from industry legend Marques Wyatt, an exercise in consistently building on a deep groove.

Why there’s nothing better than a physical record collection

This week’s playlist

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