What’s cooler than listening to some sweet vinyl records with your friends? How about listening to records that are literally “cool”? (Freezing, technically.) Over the years, musicians, record manufacturers and the like have discovered new and innovative ways of creating records. Materials like ice, cardboard, and even chocolate have been and are being used to produce awesome, functioning records.
Traditionally, records are made first by having a sound engineer record the sound or music. Then, a lacquer is carefully placed on a record-cutting machine and electric signals from the master recording travel to a cutting needle, which etches a groove into the lacquer as it rotates. Once the lacquer is imprinted properly, it’s sent off to a production company where it is coated in a metal (like silver or nickel) to make what is called a “metal master.” When the metal master is separated from the lacquer, what’s left is a disc with ridges used to create a metal record and then the “stamper” (a negative of the sound recording). The stamper is put into a hydraulic press with vinyl sandwiched in between, and steam from the press softens the plastic and pushes an impression of the recording onto it. Then, finally, it’s cooled down with cold water. Voila! A record has been born.
But, as mentioned earlier, you don’t have to make a record out of lacquer and metal; records can be made out of some pretty ridiculous things. Back in the 1950′s, cardboard records were first produced on the backs of Wheaties boxes, and were cleverly dubbed “cereal box records,” and you had to physically cut out the record from the box before playing it on a turntable. Artists like the Jackson 5 and The Monkees utilized this format to mass produce their sample songs and promote them cheaply. In fact, if you came across one today, it could be worth a chunk of change!
More recently, people have been using stranger materials to make records. In 2009, artist Katie Patterson recorded the sounds of three Icelandic glaciers on 45rpm records made from ice! Then, just earlier this year, Swedish indie band the Shout Out Louds made their latest single, “Blue Ice,” on ice as well, releasing it to only 10 specially chosen people around the world and causing quite the buzz in the music scene. Listeners were shipped a silicone mold and a bottle of distilled water in order to freeze the single themselves before playing it.
French producer and DJ, Breakbot, created a full 14-track record out of chocolate in September 2012, resulting in music and candy lovers everywhere drop their jaws (and maybe drool just a little, too). And hey, if you don’t like particularly like the style of music, you can always just eat it. Who knows what’ll be the next odd material to help create a record, but we hope they will be just as creative and delectable as these!
