Using a diamond needle, lathe-cutters can turn blank vinyl discs into your very own record – with a pressing run of however many or few you fancy. We report on a booming business.
If you want to buy a bespoke, brand-new machine to cut your own vinyl records at home, there seems to be just one man who can help you. Ulrich Sourisseau’s workshop is in a disused railway station in a remote part of the Black Forest in Germany, and he is in extremely high demand. He’s selective about who he sells his machines to, and if he does agree to make you a bit of kit, he’s a little old-school. “He’s cash-only, so I had to travel there with €7,000 on me,” recalls Jon Downing, who bought one back in 2017.
Downing then began running his own micro record label in Sheffield, Do It Thissen (that’s “do it yourself” in Yorkshire dialect), specialising in music from his home region. It was a retirement project “to keep me out of mischief and give something back to the local scene,” he says, but Downing has since put out 75 records, from the wonky weirdo punk of Dearthworms to the psychedelic krautpop of Sister Wives, which he personally cut in his shed at the bottom of the garden.
