Smashed Plastic, Chicago's first vinyl pressing plant in two decades, opens its doors

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  • The new plant is pressing records using a steamless WarmTone press from Viryl Technologies.
  • Smashed Plastic, Chicago's first vinyl pressing plant in two decades, opens its doors image
  • Chicago's Smashed Plastic is America's newest pressing plant. It's the Windy City's first vinyl plant in at least twenty years, says the Chicago Reader, who profile the new business in a cover story that illuminates the current state of vinyl manufacturing. Smashed Plastic, founded by CHIRP radio DJs John Lombardo and Andy Weber, Stationary Heart label owner Steve Polutnik and silent partner Matt Bradford, is located in a former Hammond organ factory in Belmont Gardens. They've already pressed records by local labels (including cult boogie imprint Star Creature), and are taking things slowly before fully opening for business in January. They're currently operating a Viryl steamless WarmTone press, which they purchased for around $200,000. It's the first of its kind, and Smashed Plastic says the experimental machine only spoils 1-percent of vinyl pressed—as opposed to the 30 or 40-percent typical of older machinery. They're operating out of three rooms, and they envision a bar in one of them as a "place where musicians and label staff who've placed orders can come in and relax while listening to their test pressings." While Smashed Plastic is Chicago's first pressing plant in decades, there are several other vinyl pressing outposts in the Midwest, such as Archer Record Pressing Co and Third Man in Detroit and Quality Record Pressings in Salina, Kansas.
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