INDUSTRIAL JP
idstr.jp open shareID-8
toyokasei
dj nobu
東洋化成 ×
DJ NOBU
toyo vinyl
Black lumps of vinyl chloride are pressed using a high temperature stamping machine and turned into records. DJ NOBU, a large presence in various underground music scenes, turns the sounds born from the pressing of these analog records into an industrial track. The 7-inch single itself, created by the process seen in the video, is available only on RECORD STORE DAY. The label’s 8th track is also its first physical release.
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A specialized cutting machine is used to transfer sound information to a lacquer disk by carving a groove into it. From that disk a master is created and then duplicated by pressing records on a machine called a "presser".
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It takes 70 tons of pressure to press a 7-inch record, and 100 tons to press an LP. The PVC material is aligned with the front and back labels and pressed together all at once.
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Toyo Kasei's record press machine presses the record and the labels at the same time. The front and back labels are each centered on the machine.
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The records are made of PVC. PVC is normally translucent, so carbon is added to it to get that familiar black color.
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After pressing, a small amount of extra PVC material remains around the edge of the record. When this is cut away, the record is nice and round, and complete.
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The groove in the record is a tiny 100 microns wide. A microscope connected to a monitor is used to check for cutting irregularities.
FACTORY
toyokasei
TOYOKASEI CO., LTD.
Founded in 1959, Toyokasei’s headquarters and sales department are located in Tokyo, and their Suehiro factory is in Yokohama. Their main business activities are record manufacturing and printing. Even after demand for analog records dropped in the 1980s due to the increasing popularity of CDs, Toyokasei has continued to undertake all facets of record production, from master cutting to pressing and package printing.
ARTIST
track maker
DJ NOBU
Japan's DJ Nobu is a DJ with no fixed style, but instead a very real ability to draw on a wide world of music and cook up his own unique sound spaces. He is something of a cult figure for those who know, and his decades of experience all get distilled at his acclaimed party Future Terror, his label Bitta and his few choice production outings. All of this has slowly but surely turned him from being one of Japan's, to one of the world's, most in demand selectors who is famously flexible and ever evolving.
STAFF
who made this
Naoya Tokunou
music mastering
Born in 1979 in Abashiri, Hokkaido. Began his career in 1999 as an engineer in Setagaya’s Heartbeat recording studio. Freelance from 2009. Currently based in Kyoto, working with various artists doing live PA work, recording, mixing, and mastering.
Tao Tajima
video director / cinematographer
A director and filmmaker affiliated with Tokyo’s Visual Design Studio. With works featuring 3DCG software and motion graphics such as “Night Stroll”, a music video for tofubeats featuring “an all-night dance”, the director’s specialty is a skillful use of light to change ordinary scenes into something entirely different.