The 78 Project
I'm going to be that guy. I understand the intent. I do (I think). I love nothing more that recovering the sounds of the past for the present, but I have to confess, if I could have the earlier artists recorded on digital, or tape, I would - without hesitation.
I share a fascination with older technologies, but it isn't a romance as much as a necessity. I have enormous respect for those who understand the instantaneous recording technology as it aids in the reformatting of objects committed to the medium when it was the best option.
The distinction, then, that I have to draw, is the difference between 'recovering history' and misguided nostalgia for a past that used the tools of its time. Many of my favorite recordings were committed to instantaneous disc, like those used in the 78 Project, but I have no misgivings imagining John and Alan Lomax using a digital recorder in its place if the technology were available at the time. In reality, instantaneous disc recording was (and is) clunky, fragile, and lo-fidelity.
The performances captured by the 78 project are beautiful, and I guess that's what matters, but they would be equally beautiful recorded digitally, and I kind of feel like a history and culture I care about deeply is being used as a marketing gimmick to sell tshirts and records and posters ("Hand-screened in Brooklyn, NY").
