international news _ 2nd February, 2007

Vinyl Faces Its Final Curtain

Text by Jonty Skrufff (Skrufff.com)

Dance culture elder statesmen Paul Hartnoll from Orbital and S Express's Mark Moore predicted vinyl is set to become obsolete in the new issue of Mixmag this week, in a feature headlined Grumpy Old DJs.

"It's not got much of a f**king future has it, vinyl?" said Paul Hartnoll, "It'll die like the wax cylinder."

Acid house pioneer Fabio also described being shocked when he stumbled across two Technics turntables on a recent visit to London's Science Museum, in a display area celebrating classic technology.

"They had this archive section with a pair of SL1200s in the window," the drum & bass don declared, "and it (a placard that) said 'this is what DJs used in the 70s and 80s'".

Next generation DJ Paulo Mojo told Skrufff he last played an all-vinyl set in 2000 and his last ever record in a club at the end of 2004 and said, though he still buys vinyl regularly, he now always edits tracks with Ableton before burning them onto CD for spinning.

"I was travelling with Lee Burridge a couple of weeks ago, who still plays predominantly vinyl, and he said almost ruefully, he is waiting for the day he shows up at a club to find no Technics installed. And he believes it will be sooner rather than later." said Paulo. "Lee is an exception rather than a rule mind you. Danny Howells still carries a big box of records too."

"For me the flexibility of using Abelton and CDs far outweighs any nostalgia I might feel for a box of 12" records," he added.

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