‘The proof is in the listening’: The bars giving vinyl another spin

SPOTLIGHT / Turning tables

Waxflower in Brunswick East is just one bar giving vinyl another turn.

Bored out of our brains during lockdown, Australians bought a lot of things we didn’t need – and one consumer good we bought in record numbers was, well, records. The vinyl revival really hit its stride locally during 2020-21, when sales of what had long been considered the stuff of garage sales and your esoteric uncle’s living room jumped to over a million units a year. “While it’s true that a vinyl record holds more data than a digital file, the proof is in the listening,” says Ian Underwood of Sydney’s Title store. “On a decent sound system, a vinyl record will sound richer and fuller and produce a more immersive sound. And you get to enjoy the music as the artist intended, one side at a time.” Now hospitality operators are jumping on the trend. Vinyl listening bars, most famously associated with jazz and whisky in the back lanes of Tokyo, are popping up all over our east coast. In Melbourne, where vinyl stores have always been popular, Old Plates in Fitzroy and Collingwood’s Skydiver have become after-hours drinking spots, while at Waxflower, you share space at the bar with turntables. In Sydney, Busby’s in Paddington, Ante in Newtown and Rekodo in Barangaroo all soundtrack their cocktails with live records. Bar baron Justin Hemmes recently opened Jam, a laneway watering hole with more than 15,000 records on offer. These establishments, with their top-of-the-line speakers, are deliberately designed for active, lean-in listening. Hard, we know, but try not to make requests. Jonathan Seidler

READ / Love on the run

Award-winning writer Kevin Barry’s latest book covers lovers on the run in 1890s Montana.

Irish writer Kevin Barry’s new novel, The Heart in Winter ($33), opens with his broken hero, Tom Rourke, “walking as calamity” into another boozy evening in 1891 Butte, Montana. Rourke endures the “town of whores and chest infections” by getting off his head, a pursuit he finances by penning love letters to distant targets on behalf of the town’s illiterates – commonly Irish immigrants, like himself. When he skips town with Polly Gillespie – the unenthusiastic new bride of the town’s copper-mine captain – they are pursued by brutal goons hired by her wronged husband. It’s a muddy, bloody, darkly funny story that brings to mind Cormac McCarthy, Flann O’Brien and HBO’s brilliant Deadwood. The main draw, however, is Barry’s lyrical prose; every sentence is a set piece. Paul Connolly

WATCH / Clift notes

Life Burns High is a portrait of the life of writer Charmian Clift, pictured here on the Greek island of Hydra with her eldest son, Martin.Credit: Sydney Film Festival 

Finally, a documentary on the life of Charmian Clift that reveals – mainly through old footage and interviews – the depths and colours of one of Australia’s most celebrated writers. Life Burns High, written, produced and directed by Rachel Lane, is a documentary 10 years in the making and well worth the wait. With guidance from Clift’s biographer, Nadia Wheatley, as well as Suzanne Chick – the daughter Clift gave up for adoption when she was 19 – Lane paints an indelible portrait of Clift’s brilliant but tragic life (screening now on Foxtel’s Famous channel). David Leser

LISTEN / Small-town secrets

Actor Kyle MacLachlan and journalist Joshua Davis investigate the surprising secrets of a tiny North Carolina town.

Kyle MacLachlan, who’ll forever be known as FBI Special Agent Cooper on Twin Peaks, knows a thing or three about small towns populated by strange characters with dark secrets. So he’s the perfect person to team up with investigative journalist Joshua Davis to make a podcast called Varnamtown, about a real, 300-person dot on the map in North Carolina with a doozy of a secret: in the 1980s, it did a deal with Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar to become the main US transport hub for cocaine. MacLachlan and Davis drop by to uncover the full story (spoiler alert: a plane formerly owned by rock band REO Speedwagon is involved) and how it all inevitably went pear-shaped. Along the way they meet a cast of wildly eccentric characters who prove that fact is, indeed, stranger than fiction. Barry Divola

WEAR / Pecs appeal

Aussie designer Alix Higgins is bringing back the slogan tee.

The slogan T-shirt which had people proclaiming “Choose Life” across their chests in the ’80s – among them, famously, George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley of Wham! – is making a comeback. Emerging Aussie designer Alix Higgins is continuing the spirit of self-affirmation by asking wearers to identify as a “Good Boy” ($119) – a step-up, we can all agree, from the conventional, dad-based affirmations that abound at this time of year. If a bigger ego-boost is required, Higgins also makes striking, striped polo shirts with the slogan “King” ($340), but hey, sometimes it’s good to be humble. Damien Woolnough

GET TECH / Screen idol

This Samsung smart TV uses AI to ensure a detailed viewing experience.

When it comes to what AI can offer on the home-entertainment front, Samsung’s latest powerhouse television, the QN900D (from $6499), makes a great case. Its screen is capable of displaying 8K ultra-HD images – four times the resolution of 4K content commonly found today. There’s currently little 8K content available, but the clever thing about this TV is it takes whatever sport, movie or show you’re watching and uses AI to upscale it to 8K resolution, providing an incredible level of detail. As well: it automatically adjusts its picture’s brightness settings to suit the level of light in the room. Consistently impressive. David Swan

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