11th October 2019 was the day that we took at trip to Hitchens, the destination Vinyl Presents, the Record Pressing plant.
I was joined by long time associate and friend Kev Decosta and label partner Tha 4Orce. On this occasion, we were accompanied by photographer Stuart Myers. Those that follow the site may remember him from earlier in the year. We worked on a project together. I was looking for a photographer that could document our journey making records.
I have this vision and idea of what I wanted to capture and Stuart demonstrated on our last trip out that he had the eye, the technical skills, the passion and desire for his craft that I was looking for. We were on the same page.
So 9:45 am we met at my home to embark on the day’s road trip. Ahead of us was a 2-hour drive
The 11th was the day we went to press the new release on King of the Beats Records. TR Love’s In Street Concentration. The task was the pressing of the LP than the assembly of the package. All the components for the record come from different suppliers. So instead of being printed at the plant in one place a lot of the items such as the Book, the press picture and 45 have been manufactured over the year in different places.
When we arrived we was met by Phil East, he has over 25 years of experience pressing records and today manages the plant. On this day he was personally pressing our LP. The first 3 hours of his day was spent mixing the color of the lp. We wanted something to match the cover and the autumn theme with the rusty orange leaves.
The plant its self is a relatively new site and the technology and machinery used to make the records is very new. The new machines designed by Vinyl Tech a Canadian company has changed the way records are pressed today. Faster with less scrap. Geared towards manufacturing for the independents. Labels like our selves.
We found our selves a table and set up shop to assemble the new release. What was interesting that I was able to video call TR and give him a live tour of the factory also showing him his LP being pressed.
At King of the beats, all of us involved have our fingers, input on every aspect of the project. For me as a kid it was a dream to make a record. 25 years later here we are making them, producing them, creating the artwork, distributing them and also manufacturing them ourselves.
What we do isn’t easy to think we started this label by doing an event called king of the beats saving the door money and putting into a label pressing 45s to what we are doing now.
Tha 4Orce
The purpose of bringing Stuart was to capture and document our journey so that when finally this label clicks and gets the notice and can be put on the platform it deserves there will be a body of work and visual documentation that is there to tell our story. Who was involved in how we accomplished our goals with next to nothing. This is a label built on passion experience and dedication. All those involved have a vision and using our skills work together so that we can present the best version of ourselves and the artists we represent.
We would like to thank Stuart Myers armed with a range of Cameras from Digital, Medium Format and a 35mm for his time and energy.
