MOVIETONE: “Late July”

(Movietone LP, Planet Records, 1995)

Despite plastic’s longevity, vinyl is a degradable medium. LPs scratch, chip, fracture; warp from long-term leaning or horizontal stacking. Sliding a record from its sleeve can scuff it. The static charges in spinning LPs attract dust, hair, pet fur. Mold spores bloom in vinyl’s tiny grooves. From these simple facts, a complex industry: anti-static guns, preservative and cleaning fluids, ultrapure distilled water rinses, “ricepaper” replacement sleeves, carbon-fiber-bristled brushes, ultrasonic stylus blasters, vacuum-cleaning machines, LP demagnetizers, LP flatteners. Attempting to commute volatile vibrations in air into inert physical material is a formidable business, in several senses of the word. And if record collectors desire to preserve the past (or versions of the past), and to possess regular access to it—out of an anxiety of forgetting or otherwise losing contact with it—how to deal with the deeper anxiety of losing the fragile physical objects offering such preservation? A solution: I own five copies of Movietone’s debut LP.