Fractional Farthing, a 30-year veteran of releasing underground and independent music, is raising money to release a series of limited edition lathe cut vinyl records for recordings that have fallen through the cracks. The 6-disc series will feature 3 new recordings and 3 “lost” recordings from their archives. These small-run projects are designed for collectors and will be available in advance of the digital versions of these releases.
Lathe cut records are very short run vinyl projects that are typically made using vintage one-off record-cutting equipment on newly-formulated plastics. The end result looks and lasts much like a factory-made vinyl record. This comes on the heels of two other Fractional Farthing-related releases: Naked & Shameless’ “All The Best Mayors (Smoke That Crack Cocaine)” (Atomic Mouse Recordings VD043) and X-Bax’s “Merry X-Bax” (Secular Pineapple SP008). The exact content of the upcoming releases has not yet been announced, but they will be “in a variety of genres.” The crowdfunding campaign includes a subscription option for anyone interested in collecting all 6 releases. The campaign can be found at www.indiegogo.com.
In a music market that is increasingly dominated by digital streaming, vinyl records are the only physical format to be increasing in popularity. Lathe cut vinyl records fill an interesting niche as the most easily accessible physical media that is a step-up from “home-made” (like the ubiquitous CD-R or cassettes of yesteryear), but still with in reach of a small artist on a limited budget (unlike factory run CDs or factory pressed vinyl records where the set up cost is so high you need to run 1,000 to justify the cost).
