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Preserving Bristol’s music scene in vinyl
From raucous swing to hip hop swagger, the rich veins of Bristol’s music scene are filled with obscure genres and niches which make the city what it is. But never before has the whole city had a single album to call its own.
Until now, perhaps. Sound engineer Ben Capp and Bristolian legend Jonathan ‘DJ Dad’ Coles are hoping to preserve Bristol’s current musical offering in the form of a limited edition run of double vinyl LPs (digital downloads will also be available) featuring some of the best genre-spanning artists creating music today.
Spurred on by what they see was a missed opportunity to make a compilation album in the 1990s which captaured the ‘Bristol Sound’, the album, called A Bristol Record, will feature 20 present-day bands playing original tracks from genres including dub, swing and reggae.
Gorgon Sound, Eva Lazarus and Babyhead are among the featured artists – but it wasn’t easy for Ben and Jonathan to select the bands.
“Our long list when we started putting our ideas together about who could be on this I think was 140-odd different acts, so we’ve had to refine that down and down and down to just 20,” Jonathan notes in their crowdfunding video.
They’re aiming to raise £6,500 to produce a limited run of vinyl records. “It is going to be a real record, but it is also a record of what we think of as some of the best music that’s being made in Bristol at the moment. So it’s kind of a document,” Jonathan says.
The organic process of discovering music is something that Ben finds important for people to experience.
He says: “People I think nowadays tend to listen to music on Spotify and on streaming sites and those sites kind of dictate the genre of the music that people listen to. I guess what we’re trying to do is to introduce new styles to new audiences.”
Artwork for the album has been designed by artist Anna Higgie
Artist Anna Higgie has designed the limited edition cover art for the album. Anna wanted to “to draw a big crowd scene to represent all of the diverse people in the city”.
And it’s the people in the city that Jonathan is hoping their project will benefit. “It’s going to be great for the artists involved, it’s going to give a lift to the whole Bristol music scene, and we also think that people who buy the album are going to end up with a great product.”
A Bristol Record will be released in November. You can find out more information and donate to the crowdfunder here.
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