Why Lime Cordiale’s new album is a first

They’re no strangers to innovation, but Lime Cordiale’s new album is set to change the way records are produced in Australia.

Vinyl records belong to that strange category of things that made an unexpected resurgence – the mullet, big beards and Pokemon are others – but now they’re back, one Aussie band and label is determined to produce LPs without the pollution.

According to the Australian Record Industry Association, vinyl records now represent 70 per cent of total physical sales by dollar value, the market segment having grown 14 per cent last year, and 23 per cent in 2022.

It’s been estimated each vinyl pressing produces half a kilo of carbon dioxide, which doesn’t sound like much – but it adds up. According to that estimate, the 859,000 vinyl copies Taylor Swift sold of The Tortured Poet’s Department in its first week alone would have created 429.5 tonnes of carbon emissions.

But now Brisbane’s Suitcase Records and indie rockers Lime Cordiale have teamed up to produce the band’s new album Enough Of The Sweet Talk using an innovative bio-vinyl process that slashes the emissions of an average pressing by 92 per cent.

Lean and green: Oliver (Oli) and Louis Leimbach from Lime Cordiale. Picture: Oliver Begg

For Lime Cordiale’s Oli Leimbach, the decision to get more serious about their carbon footprint came after he and brother (and bandmate) Louis acquired a farm on the NSW north coast, living locally and sustainably just as Covid-19 sent the world into lockdown.

“When Covid ended and we were back into a touring schedule, we were a bigger band, so we were making up for a lot of lost time and flying all over the world, and we just suddenly felt like massive hypocrites,” he said.

Kathy and Neil Wilson from Brisbane's Suitcase Records will be pressing biovinyl, which slashes the carbon emissions of traditional LPs. Picture: Finlay Wilson

They did what they could: ensuring carbon offsets for their gigs, touring in electric cars, and even partnering with a brewery to produce a carbon-neutral beer.

Slashing the emissions of their records – “the most precious item at the merch stand” – was the obvious next step.

While many would assume streaming is the ultimate low-carbon way to enjoy music, because it’s not a physical thing, researchers at Keele University in the UK found this was not necessarily so, because of the huge energy required to run servers, wi-fi connections and individual devices.

Vinyl goes green at Suitcase Records in Brisbane – literally and figuratively. Picture: Glenn Hunt

“If you only listen to a track a couple of times, then streaming is the best option. If you listen repeatedly, a physical copy is best,” researchers Sharon George and Deirdre McKay told The Conversation in 2019.

They later calculated that streaming an album for 17 hours had the same carbon footprint as buying a traditional vinyl record.

As for the sound quality on Lime Cordiale’s new LP, Leimbach said there were no concerns.

“We’ve just had our test pressings back and they sound great. No different to a regular vinyl album,” he said.

Husband and wife team Kathy and Neil Wilson from Suitcase Records said purchasing the biovinyl technology from a UK record press was only possible after they won a “Beautiful Business Fund” grant from the software accounting firm Xero.

The biovinyl pressing process takes about the same time as a regular record, but is slightly more expensive, at about $1 per album. Whether that cost gets passed on to the consumer will be a matter for individual management labels.

Kathy said Lime Cordiale were the perfect band to pioneer low-carbon records in Australia.

“It indicates that the concept is mainstream now,” she said.

“I think we’ll show everybody that it’s the way of the future.”

Enough Of The Sweet Talk will be released on July 26. New single Cold Treatment is out now.