Guest post: Wax & Stamp

When I was younger my parents ran a newsagent, and I always looked forward to the new magazine season. It was a chance to discover new hobbies and new subjects to obsess over. I could stumble across anything in those pages.
 
When I found Stack back in September last year, it was a breath of fresh air. It took me back to younger days when I’d find magazines at random and flick through them without any preconceptions, simply to enjoy a new discovery.
 
If magazines have always played a big part in my life, so too has music. And so a few weeks into my subscription, I began to wonder: “Is there a Stack for vinyl?”

This month, I launched Wax & Stamp with my friend Luke. He’s a music nut too. Like me, he’s spent years making mix tapes, rereading and rewatching High Fidelity, and asking friends, “Have you heard of this new group? I think you’ll love them.”

Our members will get two records each month: an LP and a single/EP. One will be chosen by us, and a guest selector will choose the other. Hopefully, after a few months, you should have amassed a collection of some of the best releases of the year.

Last weekend, I had Cereal on the coffee table in our flat. My flatmate loves Stack as well – she wants to subscribe to almost every magazine that’s come through the door since last October. But this month’s has really stood out. 

Everyone who has visited in the past week has picked up Cereal, skimmed through it and commented on how beautiful it is. Some linger longer and read one of the pieces, others put the URL into their phones. It’s become a talking point and something you engage with.

The battleground between analogue and digital in the music debate isn’t one I care for too much. For me, vinyl is such a pleasure because you engage with it more. You can sit down with it and actually turn the record over. You can hold the cover and read the sleeve. You listen to it more closely – and so you appreciate it more.

That’s exactly what Cereal has achieved this month in our house. It’s something everyone has stopped to engage with and love.

One day, I hope, a group of friends will be sitting around a coffee table, see two Wax & Stamp records, and respond in the same way. One of those rare moments when you have a genuinely new discovery. Something to find, obsess over and fall in love with. 

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Sign up to Wax & Stamp and get 10% off your first issue by using the code STACK when you register