The Vinyl factory

Recently got 3 double ORF Erich Kleinschuster 6tet albums from Wallenbink, pressed by Vinyl Factory, all 6 records are just perfect.

I am genuinely surprised to see such negative comments about Vinyl Factory.
Having purchased releases from Thom Yorke, The Wedding Present, The Mission, plus many albums from the mighty Silva Screen label, I have never experienced any problems. Aside from the occasional anti-static wash being needed that is.
Sure it's an expensive business, but EVERYTHING is going up in price, and products come at a.. erm... . The packages are exquisite. It is about the music, but not Only about the music. We don't suppose stamp collectors are so inclined because they send lots of mail. Likewise, why do I have maybe ten versions of the same album?
As for "upper class arts cannibalism" and "useless company made for Discogs speculators", this is completely untrue. In my experience, the projects they were involved with were truly unique. We don't all buy to sell / buy to invest.
I smell grapes, and they're not sweet. Also smell a few chips, on a few shoulders.

This record label is a sorry excuse for what any artist should want to release their sound on - repressings never happen and so scalping becomes ever greater, we don't collect vinyl for how expensive it can get, we collect it because it's the best analog format there is

When i think of which labels are there building a faux image of themsleves while at the core of its only about the money and middle and upper class arts cannibalism, Vinyl Factory
easily enters in my top three. Some criticism should be poitned out to the artists also, though.

I bought the 1969-1972 King Crimson Box from Juno. The first box had audible surface noise throughout side one, on the first record. The excellent Juno agreed on a return and offered a free replacement ( I live in Greece, they are based in the UK). The second box arrived in even better packaging that was bulletproof. Still surface noise was noticeable. Great service on Juno and A+ for them but VF failed me as they put forward a substandard product.

I have purchased the Three Pet Shop Boys releases from the Vinyl Factory, never from the actual website but from second hand parties. These particular records continue to appreciate with time, and they are just meant to be a collectible item. I also have a few others, Air's music for museum, now a rare item, and some of Jean Michel Jarre's 12" too... The Vinyl Factory does a great job on the social networks, pushing many articles about music and vinyl, and vinyl stores. But as of lately, too obscure artists to think on spending items.

To follow up on my original posting my most recent VF purchase has been "Jubilee 2012 Sixty Punk Singles", an art book for £60 with pictures of 60 classic punk sleeves from The Mott Collection; with a limited run of 100 copies and a bonus Sex Pistols 45 it was likely to be something I could make a few quid off if I didn't like it.

And I didn't. Frankly, it was embarassing. Toby Mott, far from being some legendary collector is some guy who has picked a few old bashed copies of the most well-known punk records at a few car boot sales and blagged himself as being some kind of authority on the subject. There was nothing particularly in there that was interesting, rare, or showed exciting design and graphics, and the shabbiness of the sleeves used far from being quaint emphasised the laziness of the whole project.

I flipped it, made £60 from the most rude and arrogant person I've encountered on eBay, it gave me a little satisfaction to know he'd blown £120 on this embarassing publication.

And now I see they have found 45 Kraftwerk 7"s (45s geddit!) in that legendary Mott Collection, another batch of shabby records from a car boot sale to fleece unsuspecting collectors with. But it looks like their £80 limited edition of 300 has not gone down well with the copyright holders as it has mysteriously been pulled from sale without any further information, though Mr Mott has tweeted "the Germans are causing trouble". So tragic, it cracked me up.

What started as an exercise in putting out quality limited editions has very quickly slipped into a cynical attempt to rip people off with ludicrously over-priced products often of substandard material, as well as proving that no matter what fancy packaging you put the latest Brian Ferry record in you can't polish a turd.