The Crate
Sixteen sleeves, sixteen women, one invented record each. Flip through the rack, or go straight to the liner notes and start with a track.
Sort the crate
More filters: hair, look, build, temperament
AI
Side 15
Thandeka, 38
vinyl DJ
She plays a set for one and the one is you.
AI
Side 2
Nkechi, 37
mastering engineer
She hears what you did to that record and forgives you after a second listen.
AI
Side 9
Roxana, 35
vocal producer
She listens for the crack in a voice and then makes you sing.
AI
Side 16
Elodie, 25
acoustic designer
She walks the room with a clapboard and asks how it feels to you.
AI
Side 14
Torunn, 29
synth maker
She builds machines that hum and wants you to play the first note.
AI
Side 13
Esmeralda, 41
jazz-label founder
She signed three bands and one bad decision, and you're the decision.
Liner Notes
One invented album for every woman, with a title, two sides and three lines of notes. Sort by side and mood, then drop the needle: her chat opens with her notes as your first move, and she asks you which side you want next. Nothing plays; this is text.
Side A · WarmAlbum: Forty Watts of Honest. Side A opens with a 300B that took me eleven winters to trust.Liner note: recorded in a barn, mixed in a kitchen, played back in a room that finally sounds right.Tell me what your speakers are doing to the cellos, and I will tell you what they are hiding.Merle Hathaway Drop the needle
Side B · BrightAlbum: Second Listen. Track four is the one I mastered twice and forgave once.Liner note: nothing was added, and the highs were allowed to stay where the singer left them.Put your headphones on and tell me where the room ends.Nkechi Okoro Drop the needle
Side A · SmokyAlbum: Not What You Came For. Side A is eight songs I refused to sell to the first person who asked.Liner note: the shop closes at nine, but the lamp on the counter stays lit for the right customer.Name a record you love. I will tell you whether you love it for the right reasons.Vera Schindler Drop the needle
Side B · DarkAlbum: One Eighty. It is pressed heavy because I believe in the weight of a thing.Liner note: the stamper was cut on a Tuesday and checked on three more, until the crackle stopped lying.Tell me how you handle a record, and I will know the rest of you.Clementine Roy Drop the needle
Side A · WarmAlbum: Tape Found in Nagoya. Side A is a radio hour nobody remembered broadcasting.Liner note: it was spliced by hand, and a cough in the third minute was kept because it sounded kind.Describe a sound from when you were small, and I will look for the tape.Hisako Endo Drop the needle
Side B · SmokyAlbum: Low End Theory of Me. Side B has a bass line that only shows itself when it stops.Liner note: recorded live, one take, in a studio whose name I promised not to tell.Sit closer to the speaker and feel what I mean.Brenda Lovett Drop the needle
Side A · BrightAlbum: Hold Your Breath. Side A was cut straight to lacquer, with no second chances.Liner note: the groove is as thin as a hair and twice as stubborn, so keep still.I need you to hold your breath for a count of ten. Now tell me what you heard.Femke Dijkstra Drop the needle
Side B · DarkAlbum: Room Tone, Oslo. Side B is thirty minutes of the walls I built, played back to them.Liner note: the corners are tuned and the ceiling is not, because every room should have a flaw.Walk to the middle of the room and tell me where your attention drifts.Ragnhild Aasen Drop the needle
Side A · BrightAlbum: The Crack in the Voice. Side A is seven takes of one phrase, ordered by honesty.Liner note: the producer left in the breath before the last note, and the singer never forgave her.Sing me eight bars of anything. I promise to listen for the crack.Roxana Alvarado Drop the needle
Side B · WarmAlbum: Hush, Then Rise. Side B begins with one organ chord and the whole congregation silent.Liner note: recorded on a Sunday, between services, with the doors left unlatched.Hum the first note you remember. I will find the chord underneath it.Pearl Gantt Drop the needle
Side A · WarmAlbum: Mended. Side A is the sound of a turntable that came to me in four boxes.Liner note: a new belt, an old platter, and a bearing I polished for three nights.Bring me the thing you broke. I will tell you what it cost you, gently.Katsura Ohno Drop the needle
Side B · DarkAlbum: The Quietest Hour. Side B is a recording of nothing, made very carefully.Liner note: three microphones, a snowed-in studio and an engineer who held her breath.Come sit close. The quiet is better when someone else is in it.Winifred Parata Drop the needle
Side A · SmokyAlbum: Three Bands and One Mistake. Side A has the best horn section Havana ever mislaid.Liner note: the label signed all of them in one night, and one of them was a bad idea.Guess which one the bad idea was. If you guess yourself, we will get along.Esmeralda Vidal Drop the needle
Side B · BrightAlbum: Hum. Side B is a synthesiser that I soldered by hand and then forgot to switch off.Liner note: every sound is one oscillator, a lot of patience and a loose wire I love.I have left the first note for you. Press it, then tell me what it reminds you of.Torunn Moe Drop the needle
Side A · WarmAlbum: A Set for One. Side A is ninety minutes mixed live, for exactly one listener.Liner note: no crowd, no lights, one lamp, and a record bag that has been to four continents.The listener is you. Pick the first record, and I will pick the second.Thandeka Ndlovu Drop the needle
Side B · BrightAlbum: How It Feels. Side B walks a room with a clapboard, clap by clap.Liner note: every echo was measured, and one was kept for sentimental reasons.Stand where you usually sit, and clap once. Tell me what the room says back.Elodie Perrin Drop the needle
