Next year Whitelabrecs will be 10 years old! Reflecting back, I can't believe I managed to stick at something this long! The label was originally inspired by the vinyl format, with the name being an abbreviation of 'white label records' and the CD releases imitate much-loved vinyl packaging styles. I still collect vinyl, supporting other labels and artists so it will be really special to own a few Whitelabrecs titles on wax.

Throughout 2026 I'm going to be reissuing a collection of Whitelabrecs classics, as voted by the community via print-on-demand service Elastic Stage. I got a list of the discography over the years and worked through the data, eliminating albums that were too long to fit onto vinyl. Then I looked at which records sold the best and took on board comments and requests from recent surveys too.

We now have four shortlists and fans can vote for the record they'd most like to see reissued on vinyl each quarter. I thought for this week's blog post, that I'd share a short video I made, as well as a little preview of each record in the shortlist. You can head straight over to vote HERE or read on below for some more information...

2026 VINYL REISSUES

VINYL IS AVAILABLE NOW!

Before I introduce the list of records in voting pool one, I'd like to announce that to get things going straight away - Andrew Heath and I have been working to test out Elastic Stage. We have made our respective albums The Cloud Machine and Svalbarð available from now - as seen in the video:

Andrew Heath
The Cloud Machine
2024

When Andrew was re-designing the vinyl artwork for Svalbarð, I suggested that perhaps he'd like to do a design for The Cloud Machine too, forgetting that the album was an hour in length and wouldn't fit onto a vinyl record! However, Andrew was undeterred and included some additional tracks not in the original, editing others and remastering the whole thing - presenting as a special collectors edition of The Cloud Machine. He has chosen some beautiful inner sleeve art for this too, which can be seen in the video above and on the Elastic Stage page HERE.

Glåsbird
Svalbarð
2019

I've had a lot of interest over the years from people asking about whether my music as Glåsbird will be available on vinyl. And since Svalbarð is my best seller mostly thanks to Bandcamp's editorial feature (now removed), it made sense to get a vinyl repress prepared of this album. For the original release I designed the artwork layout myself (badly) - so this time, I got Andrew to arrange it all for me and it's looking great! Aldona Pivoriene's original artwork looks amazing printed onto a large 12" sleeve. You can check this one out HERE.

WHAT'S IN THE VOTE?

So onto the actual vote then - you can make your selection HERE but if you need a little help picking a favourite from this list, below is a run-down of the albums I've shortlisted. Please note, the vote runs until 23:59 on the 15th of November 2025. I'll repress the top two most voted albums between January and March next year...

Ben McElroy
Bird-Stone
2016

First, here's a record I released in Whitelabrecs' first year, by fellow Midlands, UK based artist Ben McElroy. I absolutely loved this album when Ben sent it through; a mix of cello, violin, viola, guitar and voice in a Folk record influenced by the likes of Nick Drake, Gavin Bryars and Virginia Woolf. My wife and I were visiting the place where we got married and spotted a bird stood on a wall. She carefully took a close-up photo without scaring it away, and then I edited it for the artwork. This album is one of three in the list which are pretty rare in physical-form - it was a limited run of 50 hand-burnt, hand-stamped copies, complete with a polaroid print of the artwork.

Darkroom
Water like mbira
2023

I had to get some Darkroom on the list; I've worked with Michael Bearpark and Andrew Ostler a few times over the years and loved their self-released albums before Whitelabrecs was even a thing. Ideally I'd want to repress The Last Sense To Fade on a double LP but that won't be possible via Elastic Stage. So here's a beautiful 2 track EP, clocking in at a vinyl-friendly 34 minutes. It's never seen the light of day as a physical release before, having featured as a digital-only eRecord.

First Snow of The Year
Awakening of The Pines
2023

At the end of 2023 I had the pleasure of working with Belgian artist Erik Sevenans, who records as First Snow of The Year. His Whitelabrecs debut 'Awakening of The Pines' was released in the record wallet format and was well received; one listener said 'I have to say, this record is heart opening. It provides a lot of inspiration. Like a flow. Truly beautiful piece of art'. It's a record that Erik made after relocating to Munich in Germany, having to adapt to a new environment and learn a new language - against a perishingly cold winter.

Gray Acres
Material Forces
2019

2019 was quite the transitional year for Whitelabrecs - I started printing CDs for starters and increased the runs to 100 copies. They'd sell out pretty frequently too! I was really excited to receive a demo from the Tasselmyer brothers, who record together as Gray Acres and this record was gobbled up in no time. These artists have gone on to make some amazing records between them and Andrew in particular has been doing some fabulous things as an artist, sharing lots of behind the scenes content on his artistic processes via Substack.

Julia Gjertsen & Gustav Davidsson
Wandering Mind, Drifting Weather
2025

This is the newest inclusion in this vote across nearly 10 years of music. And it was the fastest release I've ever assembled - a demo in May, sold out by the end of July. I had a gap in the schedule and received a demo from Julia and Gustav - we got the mastering, artwork and promotional plans together and it was a roaring success. What's more, it introduced a little Jazz in the discography; some fans likened it to the sort of music one might hear on legendary label ECM. It shot up the list of all-time Whitelabrecs favourites in no time at all.

Pie Are Squared
Con Calma
2020

I knew Mohammed Ashraf from his writing for the wonderful Fluid Radio blog when it was in full swing, back in the late 00's and early 2010's. We'd been planning a release of this album 'Con Calma' until the pandemic hit and we had to delay it. After a pause, post-lockdown, we released it and this lightly abrasive Ambient soundtrack to escapism was very well received. One listener puts it well; 'the whole buildup of this album from all previous track just bursts into a flame of serenity in Last Trace Of Home. The feeling was surreal and akin to drowning in a sea of dopamine.'

Slow Clinic
Discarded Things Once Loved
2018

In 2018 I started to work more with mastering engineer James Edward Armstrong and released his wonderful Slow Clinic album 'Discarded Things Once Loved'. It was created using objects given to him as gifts from an ex partner but the title for the listener is something that may relate in a number of ways. The cover artwork is an edited photo of a photo, taken one winter at my wife's childhood home. The building you can see was a much-loved summer house which burnt down.

Steve Pacheco
The 4th
2017

In Whitelabrecs' second year I received a demo from an artist I was very excited to work with - Steve Pacheco, who also records as Truthiscolor and debuted on the marvellous Dauw imprint. The 4th is an album dedicated to the chakra system, with the fourth of these being the heart. It's an album about cherished memories, loss and letting go. It's a four track record of deep Ambient drones, clocking in at the length of an EP or mini album.