For almost half a decade a group of music fans in Toledo, Ohio have been opening up their spacious living room to passing touring musicians, recording their intimate in-house performances for the world to view. To date Little Elephant’s repertoire reads like a menu of exciting emerging artists, having in their early days shared their home with the likes of Foxing, Laura Stevenson and You Blew It!, and more recently greeted TTNG, Slingshot Dakota and Frameworks, among a heap of others. Built around an impressive passion for atypical music, Little Elephant are set to push forward, now offering the unique sessions on vinyl.
Built out of a desire to keep Little Elephant alive financially, the concept of vinyl releases has evolved into much more. Having spent the last year setting up the process of laying the sessions down, the complex idea seems entirely fitting to move the collective forward. “It’s been a hell of a lot of work over the past three or so years, for almost no money at all,” says Rob Courtney, one of three minds behind Little Elephant, of the sessions. Having battled with the idea of sponsorship, and ultimately deciding that it would damage their DIY ethos, vinyl releases emerged as the sensible approach. “Once the idea came up, we ran with it. Over the course of a year and a half we are here now, ready to make this happen.”
Implementing the idea has taken some serious work. Teaming up with local engineering company Industrial Technology Inc, they have developed a state of the art record lathe. Combining this new kit with a Swiss built Caruso feedback cutting head provides the opportunity to individually cut all of the sessions onto vinyl without losing any of the live quality. “Typically, lathe cut records can be considered low quality,” Rob admits, “more of a novelty item. However, if you do it right you get amazing results. We are doing it right and happy to say our cuts are perfect. Our lathe is quiet, and our cutter head is state of the art.”
