Vinylmania: When Life Runs at 33 Revolutions Per Minute

Voiceover:In the beginning, there was silence.

Then came sound.

Voiceover:Humans searched for a way to entrap it.

Hoping they could keep it and tame it.

At the dawn of the third millennium, music seemed to be

all around us, in every place, at every moment.

But where does music come from?

Voiceover:Have you ever listened to a vinyl record?

Music comes from here, from the grooves, turntable,

amp, speakers and all thanks to a diamond needle.

Simple click is not enough to listen to the music.

But let's go back and start from the beginning.

I fell into music at an early age, my mother used to

always wake me up to a Mozart record.

From that moment on, records have been my life.

12-inch, 10-inch, 7-inch, colored discs,

picture discs, flexi-discs, any discs.

I have more than 3000 records in my collection,

and I like to keep them clean.

Uncommon behavior, maybe, in the digital world,

considering vinyl's dead, isn't it?

On the contrary, it's very much alive.

Figures online confirm that there are others like me out there.

I'm not alone.

Man:Hey, bud, I think you're supposed to hang your back.

Voiceover:They say the things you love

bring out the best in you.

When I'm at a record fair, I'm not so sure.

The need to get your hands on that rare cover,

that one record that completes your collection,

overpowers even the most generous of souls.

It's quick, it's stealth, it's business, it's a mania.

And, if you know what you want,

you never go home empty-handed.

You have to seize the moment.

Girl:Oh, no, I want that one! Boy: I'm done. All right,

Girl:He got "L.A. Woman," oh, well.

Voiceover:I seized mine when spiralling these aisles.

It's here I met Chris, a vinyl veteran.

Voiceover:I began to follow him, year after year.

And we became good friends.

Like me, he can't resist vinyl's call.

Voiceover:I contemplate Chris' words and I ask myself,

"where does the pleasure he speaks about come from?"

How does this old format still survive?

It's time to travel to the core of the grooves.

Voiceover:Music is the landscape of our lives.

A records collection is like a train.

You keep adding wagons as you go along.

Landscape after landscape, memory after memory.

Record after record.

GZ printed their first record in 1951.

One of the oldest pressing plants in Europe,

now it is the biggest in the world.

Here, for the first time, I've seen tangible sound

becoming concrete.

Voiceover:We can see here, this is the music.

Here, it is the music.

Voiceover:Gazing at these grooves,

I feel like I'm traveling inside them.

Man:was white as snow, and everywhere that

Mary went, that lamb was sure to go.

Ha, ha, ha, ha!

Voiceover:I see Edison imprison sound in wax cylinders.

I see Emil Berliner's Grammophon, the first

to record music onto records.

I hear the whistling of the bombs blend in with

the sounds of the first vinyl records brought to Europe

by the American soldiers.

Since then, the craze has not stopped.

This is the substance on which music is engraved

on for an eternity, vinyl.

Over 25,000 records are pressed here every day.

But wasn't vinyl killed by the compact disc?

London, an easy place to find my bearings.

After 100 yards, turn right, cross the round-about,

second exit, then turn right, take the exit, then keep left.

Then, right turn ahead, then turn left, turn right.

Then you have reached your destination.

Fresh like a flower, after a night of DJ-ing, I meet

Eddie Piller for a pint, it's 2:00 PM.

Voiceover:Eddie is a DJ, like me.

He only plays vinyl, and he fights for the cause.

Eddie:CD is a lie, the groove of a record through a

magnifier is a sound wave, that's what you're playing.

On a CD, you're playing a computer-generated

copy of a sound wave, and a CD doesn't have a fast

enough ability to recreate an actual sound wave.

So this is the big lie that the major record companies

and the people who have vested interests in making CDs

this is the lie that they told you, CDs sound better.

They've never sounded better.

The people who told you that 20 years ago were

lying, and they knew they were lying.

Nothing sounds better than vinyl.

Voiceover:With his clear thinking and diplomacy,

Eddie had pushed me to the other side of the planet.

Voiceover:Today's not just any day, today is

record store day, a world-wide celebration for

independently-owned record stores.

And a great excuse to buy a couple of records.

Voiceover:Here, in the land where new technology

goes hand-in-hand with tradition, analog sound

prepares its vendetta.

I have an appointment with the future.

I'm about to meet the creator of a new system

that plays vinyl records without a needle.

Sanju:Here, we have been manufacturing laser turntable.

What we do here, is optical system production

and final assembling production.

Voiceover:Could you show me?

Sanju:Sure, could you follow me?

Watch your step.

Here, it is a facility for laser-assisted production.

He's Mr. Setazuka, in charge of laser-assisted manufacturing.

He has 12 machineries, starts from here through

over there, then using each machine, he proceed

manufacturing laser system.

We keep every customers by file, one-by-one.

We have about 1,500 customers, including

Japan, USA and many other countries.

Sanju:Watch your step, please.

This table is better than analog.

Tiger and lion, which is stronger?

Analog sound quality is better than digitized sound

because analog means 'natural' such as a

conversation right now, is natural, nothing computerized

For me, listen to the analog music makes me

peaceful and relax.

Now let's enjoy music.

Voiceover:I'm mesmerized by the sound of this

laser turntable, it's really clear, pristine.

But something is missing.

The record disappears in the machine, just like any CD.

Voiceover:one, two, three, four

Voiceover:I'm not as talented as DJ Kentaro

but, I too, enjoy making music with music.

My parents wanted me to play the piano,

but I preferred the turntable.

Life in my hands.

Rich:You have to really be gentle with them,

because if you treat your kid disrespectfully,

your kid is going to disrespect you in public, right?

I think records are the same way.

Jerome:You're in the club, it's many people, it's packed,

you're under pressure, it's like, "let's go, let's go."

If I pick up a record, I look at the record and I'm

like, "ah! that one!"

It's different from going through your CD,

I don't go "that one" or that one on the computer.

It's like you have a personal relationship with the vinyl.

It's a love affair, it's a love affair.

G. Rina:Physical response, convenience, feeling

atmosphere, noise.

The Millionaire:The difference is like being

in the bed with your girl or boyfriend or, you know,

whoever, or like cybersex or something.

You've got to have your hands on.

Eddie:I DJ all over the world every week, okay,

and one thing I cannot bring myself to do,

which so many DJs do now today, is they have a laptop.

They get the laptop, they open the laptop, they press

'play' and then they stand there.

This is not DJ-ing, DJ-ing is choosing a record that

fits with the record before, get - uh! - that's DJ-ing.

Forget computers and CDs, records that's what it's

all about, personally, from my perspective.

Martin:Hey! Come in. James: Hi, Martin, how are you doing?

Martin:Fine, come in, come on.

Voiceover:It's tea time.

Martin and James are two inseparable DJs.

Martin:They're yours.

Squeaky chair, you've got a squeaky chair.

James:Terrible.

Martin:Squeaky chair.

James:Yes.

Martin:Still buying vinyl, still DJ-ing Matts in London.

So, it's been good, ten years, it's been good.

James:Still managing to find records, you know,

so that bubble burst, I guess, quite a few years ago.

But there is, you know, still records, too, to be found

without having to spend too much money, either.

Martin:We try to get the records as cheap as possible.

James:Bargains.

Voiceover:Paladins in the lounge music revival

even inspired me as a DJ.

Martin:I think we're a bit refreshing now, because

one, it was so heavy, we have to get our trolleys,

and we have to walk down the road with this box of -