Records In, Books Out
The cardboard a record arrives in is exactly the right size for a book.
By Rafi Mercer
The records arrive in cardboard built for one purpose. Stiff at the corners, folded square, sized to twelve inches and nothing else. Whoever designs them is thinking about a postal system that does not care what is inside.
I have been keeping them. Flattened, stacked behind the door, one for every record bought for the sessions.
Four books went out in them today. One more sold.
I did not plan this. The stack was simply there, and the books needed posting, and a book is close enough to a record in shape that the fit is almost embarrassing. The same corner protection. The same instinct not to bend.
So the box comes in holding something to be listened to, and leaves holding something to be read. Nothing bought, nothing added, no line on any invoice. Records in, books out.
There is something in that I keep turning over. Both objects exist because someone decided a thing was worth holding on to — pressing it, printing it, giving it edges. A file does not need a box. That is most of the argument, really. The box is the proof.
The fourth print run is in. Copies are moving to the States for conversations that may or may not come to anything, and every one of them goes out in cardboard that has already done a day's work.
The stack behind the door is shorter tonight. Next month's record will restock it.
What is The Luxury of Listening?
It is the Tracks & Tales book, now in its fourth print run. Copies are posted individually rather than through a distributor.
Why buy records for the sessions on vinyl at all?
The Listening Club sits with one album a month, played on vinyl, start to finish. The format is the point. A record has a side, an end, and a reason to stay in the room.
What is The Listening Club?
A monthly gathering around a single album, held in rooms around the world. One record, no talking over it, interludes between tracks.
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