Surface Noise

When someone complained about the surface noise that came with listening to music on vinyl, the late BBC disc jockey John Peel (a notable lover of the format), was said to have replied, “Mate, life has surface noise.”

It’s hard to argue with Peel’s assessment of life in this mortal coil. Who among us wouldn’t wish that things were different, though?

I’ve come to a point of frustration with my record collection where even new records have an amount of surface noise (crackling, pops) that are hard to ignore. It's especially irking when you pay so much these days for any music pressed to vinyl. I’ve tried various methods to reduce the noise:

• A new stylus
• An anti-static brush
• A Big Fudge record cleaning set
• A Milty Anti-static gun
• A Spin Clean record cleaning set
• Homemade cleaning solution recommended by several sites

Nothing has made a substantial impact. I still have newer records that sound like they’ve been gathering dust in the attic for years. I even have some older records that won’t play. Here’s video of one of my favorite records with the needle skating across it.¹

Independent records labels, in particular, have gone all in on vinyl. I get countless emails from various labels touting their latest releases on wax. I just received an email from Polyvinyl Records today about new vinyl variants of albums by the band Alvvays. These are in edition to several variants that are already offered by Polyvinyl and at places like Newbury Comics. You can hardly blame the artists and the labels for milking this cow for all it’s worth when opportunities for compensation from making music are drying up.

Despite being sympathetic to the plight of the recording industry, vinyl is a market that I’m becoming less likely to participate in.²