Pressing & Distribution
From lacquer cut to shop rack: the physical chain that carried British electronic music into the world.
Plate 4.00 — Between The Tape And The Shop. Photo: Nathan Neve / Pexels
-
Plate 4.01
Between the Tape and the Shop
Every step a finished master had to survive before it reached the counter
-
Plate 4.02
How a Lacquer Is Cut
The decisions made at the cutting lathe determine what a pressing actually sounds like — before a single drop of PVC has been poured.
-
Plate 4.03
Virgin Vinyl, Regrind, and the Weight Difference
The material in the groove mattered as much as what was cut into it.
-
Plate 4.04
One-Stop or Direct: How Records Reached Shops
The difference between a label ringing every shop itself and letting a middleman do it — margin, reach, and who waits longest to be paid.
The chain on the ground
Lacquers were cut in London; the presses and the shops that made a record move were spread across the country. Every plate in this section describes one leg of that journey.
Places named across these plates