PhonoLab is carving out its own niche in the vinyl record revival

"It's a ridiculous addiction," the Newcastle DJ admits with a laugh. "They're really inconvenient. They get broken really easily, they get scratched really easily, they're heavy. There's nothing good about them from a professional point of view.

"[But] one of the greatest things I like to do on weekends, is get an LP, stick it on and lay down on the couch and listen to it, which you never do with Spotify."

Moon isn't alone in his passion for vinyl. The vinyl revival has been rapidly growing. Last year vinyl overtook CDs sales in Australia for the first since 1987 when they reached $29.7 million.

Of course digital music dwarfs both vinyl and CDs, accounting for 90 per cent of Australian music sales.

Naturally the revival in vinyl has led to many emerging bands and artists to seek out ways to release their own music physically.

That's where Moon and his business partner Dan Crabb come in. Since 2018 their business PhonoLab have created their own niche in the vinyl revival by producing lathe-cut records.

Nestled on the second and third floors of the Clyde Street Studios in Hamilton North's quirky industrial estate, PhonoLab is Australia's only full-time commercial lathe record-cutting operation.

Unlike pressed vinyl, which is used by almost all small to major label artists, lathe records are produced by cutting the grooves into a hard plastic discs.

It's a far cheaper and flexible method of record production, allowing for short runs of LPs ranging from one to 100.

Their "bread and butter" is gift records, where people email a Spotify playlist and PhonoLab source the songs off iTunes to create a mixed-tape record.

"That's what we spend most of our time doing because that's where the money is," Moon says. "The short runs, we like doing it, because it's cool work.

"We do a lot of mastering in here too. That's the work that's got bit of street cred. It's not like we talk to our mates about the gift records."

PhonoLab has produced records for Newcastle acts like Fungas, dave the band, Yev Kassem, e4444e, Piper Butcher and The Med Heads, as well as seven-inch singles for well-known electronic acts LDRU and Flight Facilities and psych-rock heavyweights King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard.

PhonoLab has also worked with Sydney DJs to cut seven-inch "dub plates", which usually feature tracks not available online.

DIY Newcastle label New Brain Communications - which includes the psych bands Fungas, The Med Heads, Beta Max Royale and Sheena Dali's Swedish Magazines - moved next door to PhonoLab in the Creator Incubator and has had five records cut there.

Previously local bands wanting vinyl would use Melbourne-based plant, Zenith Records, but with short runs consisting of a minimum 200 to 300 copies it was cost prohibitive to most bands.

"Most bands would love to think they could offload 300 records, but offloading 300 records is quite a task," Moon says. "My first band's CD, I think we had 300 made and I think I've still go 100 in my attic."

As Zenith is in high demand nationally, delays are common. In 2020 Newcastle's dave the band were gearing up for the album launch of their debut Slob Stories at the Cambridge Hotel when it became apparent the vinyl wouldn't be ready for the gig.

Dave the band contacted PhonoLab and 20 lathe-cut copies of Slob Stories were made in 24 hours. The copies sold out at the launch.

Frontman Noah Church has also had the records for his two Yev Kassem solo albums produced by PhonoLab.

"For me, part of it is after I've made an album I want to hold it in my hands and you have the art work printed out big," Church says. "It's my favourite way to listen to music, so it's really satisfying to be able to have that.

"At the moment people are keen to buy vinyl. I burn CDs at home and struggle to give them away for free as people say, 'I don't have a CD player', but people will pay $50 for vinyl."

The origins of PhonoLab began when Moon was in Berlin on holiday where he met a lathe record-cutter.

"He just did it [cut a record] in front of me," Moon says. "We tuned it up and stuck it on a disc and it sounded amazing.

"I always thought lathe-cut records didn't sound as good. That's what I'd heard. But that's a common misnomer."

From there Moon decided to buy a lathe cutter from a man in Germany.

"He was a tricky bloke to track down and deal with, but eventually after nine months of bugging him with emails he got back to me and said, 'this is the date you have to come here to buy it and I'll train you to use it'," he says.

Eventually Crabb, a fellow DJ, came onboard and they bought a second lathe-cutting machine and PhonoLab shifted from Bolton Street in the CBD to Hamilton North.

PhonoLab is an apt name. The lathe-cutting room looks like a mad scientist's playground, filled with electronic gadgets, computers, sound wave wall charts and tables filled with records.

"It is a kind of a lab, I suppose," Crabb says. "We've got microscopes, we should be wearing lab coats and some goggles."

As a niche business, much of Moon and Crabb's energy has focused on refining their processes.

The lathe machine cuts one side of a record at a time, so previously Moon and Crabb had to manually insert the gaps between tracks and the lock groove, which prevents the needle from entering the label area. All time-consuming.

However, the pair have developed their own midi lathe control device which allows you to automate the record's settings with a laptop.

"It's a game-changer," Moon says. "We used to be slaves to those machines. Slaves to lathe. But we're not anymore."

PhonoLab were also the first lathe-cutters to devise how to use different coloured plastic. Rather than using one 1.5 milimetre thick clear disc, they used two 0.75mm thick pieces of plastic, painted them inside and glued them together.

"We had to think up all this stuff, nobody tells you," Moon says. "It's like, 'here's the machine to cut records'. Yeah that's part of the job, but what else do we need?

"There's lots of development that continues and keeps us interested as well."

The next problem Moon and Crabb hope to solve is the most pressing. Lathe-cutting requires the use of diamond stylus to cut the tiny grooves of the tracks. The diamonds require regular resharpening and only one guy in France currently provides the service.

"We sent some off a month ago to be resharpened and we're yet to hear anything back," Crabb says. "So we're on bit of a knife edge."

At the moment PhonoLab is at full capacity, but Moon and Crabb hope to expand, even if they're hesitant about growing the business further.

"If we get a few more machines online and our stylus sharpened in house, then it'll be full steam ahead, train up more people. But that's if we could be bothered," Moon laughs.

PhonoLab is based at Clyde Street Studios, 11C/50 Clyde Street, Hamilton North. Visit phonolab.com.au for more information.