Whitelabrecs was set-up in 2016, originally releasing hand made CDrs that looked just like mini white label vinyl, complete with accompanying Polaroid art and title stamped in coloured ink. In 2018 we switched to printed gatefold vinyl effect CDrs and since the beginning, we’ve occasionally released digital work too.
We’re aware that the listening habits of future generations will change, with their needs increasingly likely to search for something immediate, streamable to Bluetooth speakers, space saving, and not impacting the environment. We still love our CDs, we still love vinyl, but we do love digital too and this format will always have a place in our catalog. The problem however has been that we love designing concepts, coming up with creative packaging ideas and sourcing high quality artwork. We’ve felt that digital has its drawbacks in terms of design and conveying that special feeling you get when you hold a physical edition.
Slowly, we have been working on a new series of digital editions to supplement our CDs. This will be a new space for artists to experiment, collaborate, record anonymously, promote themselves, not to mention an increased chance of featuring in our catalog. We receive so many quality demos that would be a good fit for the label, but making CDs is expensive and we have to agonise over every penny spent on making them, such is the landscape of selling physical music nowadays. This is an opportunity for us to work with more talented people, share more music, and for us to experiment more too.
Our new series takes an image of a vinyl sleeve and blank labelled disc, with a rubber-stamped logo and frame, and typewritten artist and title. For each release, colours and artists will change, but the dusty old sleeve design ideas remain the same. You’ll only hear one track on the release’s Bandcamp page and the rest are hidden. Everything is contained within the download which includes a range of high quality audio file format options and a PDF scrapbook which features liner notes, a Polaroid image of the cover art (reminiscent of our early releases), tracklist, credits, additional images and links from the artist. The duration of the music will not exceed the maximum length of a normal vinyl album and we hope that our digital releases are the closest they can be to capturing that magical feeling of holding a physical album, in a digital form.
Our first edition of the new eRecords series is from Whitelabrecs’ very own Harry Towell, under his Spheruleus project which has been active since 2008. The EP will be out on the 26th of February and fittingly, is entitled ‘Inaugurate’ as the series commences.
For eRecords, we will not create the 5 minute Soundcloud previews of all the tracks. Instead, we will share one full track or an excerpt from the record to give you a hint of what the full release sounds like.
Click on the player above, where you can take a listen to ‘a blank horizon’ from the very first eRecord in this new series.
whitelabrecs.com 