Inside the launch of PHR Pressing, the new pressing plant in Indonesia hoping to restart a vinyl renaissance

There’s one more new vinyl pressing plant in the world. In a time of unprecedented demand for vinyl records by both consumers and major labels, the arrival of PHR Pressing is most welcome – especially in its home base of Indonesia, which reportedly hasn’t had a pressing plant known to the public in nearly 50 years.

“One thing we’re very sure about is that we love music and we love Indonesia,” Clement Arnold, co-founder of PHR Pressing, tells NME. Before PHR Pressing, Arnold was known within the country’s sprawling music scene as the head of Elevation Records, a modest record label with an affinity for rustic rock sounds and the enduring physical format – be it vinyl, CD or cassette tape.

PHR Pressing is the culmination of Arnold’s hopes to distribute music beyond digital – not just through his label but others, too. A collaborative effort between Arnold’s Elevation and Piringan Hitam Recordstore (PHR), a brick-and-mortar operation founded 2012 that stocks a diverse catalogue of vinyl records and turntables, the plant in Cengkareng, West Jakarta became operational this week and will officially launch in August.

Since the closure of label, studio and plant Lokananta in Surakarta, Central Java in the early ’70s, per the Jakarta Post, Indonesia hasn’t had a publicly known operational vinyl pressing plant – till now. (In a stroke of coincidence, Lokananta reopened earlier this month and aims to revive its plant at some point.)

PHR Pressing has been introduced as a new manufacturing business, but it was built on existing foundations. In an email interview with NME, Arnold positions its founding as an “opportunity” – starting with a chance encounter with a businessman Edy Goh, who had been quietly operating his own pressing plant in Indonesia from 2019 till 2022, when it folded due to the pandemic. (Arnold wouldn’t be drawn on details about Goh’s former business, citing an agreement with Goh to respect his privacy.)

Even with the gloomy economic climate of 2022, Arnold saw the potential in Goh’s equipment and facilities for a more ambitious project – one with greater scope than the under-the-radar, small-batch production of Goh’s past operation, and the potential to ease the intricate and, often, expensive process of releasing vinyl records in Indonesia.

“Vinyl record releases in Indonesia were [previously] a ‘luxury’ to the artists,” Arnold explains. “That’s because it took so much effort, time, budget and risk when having a record pressed in Europe or the US.” The risks involve waiting an entire year for stock to arrive in Indonesia, at the whim of “logistics and customs clearance.” “Most pressing plants also require a full payment to be paid in advance,” Arnold laments, stating: “[It’s] a very stressful situation for everyone involved.”

Internationally, pressing plants have seen an unprecedented increase in backlog – recent years have left labels scrambling to keep up with demand from fans, more of whom desire vinyl copies of new releases and past favourites. In Indonesia, current demand for vinyl stretches back to 2010, says Arnold, and applies to releases by Indonesian and international artists alike.

• READ MORE: What’s causing the vinyl delay? “Adele is not the problem”, say music industry insiders

So it’s not surprising that PHR Pressing is already anticipating brisk business. The plant, which owns imported machinery – made with Italian technology and assembled by a Hong Kong company – has a staff of seven (including its founders) and a production capacity of 30,000 records a month; in May, Arnold told the Jakarta Post that “at least 10 musicians” are in line for production.

And where Edy Goh’s old operation was apparently not widely known even among “industry players”, PHR Pressing is aiming for far greater accessibility, exemplified in its motto: “Now everyone can press vinyl.”

“Vinyl record releases in Indonesia were [previously] a ‘luxury’ to the artists”

Arnold feels PHR is up to the task of keeping its prices affordable (a price calculator on its website says vinyl pricing starts at IDR75,000). “We want to be effective and efficient internally without sacrificing our quality standards,” he says. This includes sourcing the right PVC material for records, hiring employees with industry knowledge, and, crucially, sourcing the right engineers to help master their records.

In this process, an engineer must skilfully cut a lacquer stamper, which is then used by plants for vinyl manufacturing – the lacquer is imprinted onto a biscuit (a putty-like substance made from melted PVC pellets) to create discs of vinyl with sound-generating grooves.

Mastering is crucial to vinyl’s allure as an audiophile object – developing a specific sound signature that you’ve probably heard described as “warm”. A seasoned engineer manipulates vinyl’s limitations as an analogue format to service – or even enhance – the music; like pressing plants, vinyl mastering engineers are few and far between, and are typically hired on a project basis.

The best ones are sought after around the world: for instance Bernie Grundman, a renowned American engineer who’s run his own mastering studio since 1984, is still cutting vinyl – from Pink Floyd’s recent album reissues to first-time pressings of albums by Filipino rock band Eraserheads and Thai singer-songwriter Sek Loso.

Arnold hopes to build an in-house mastering studio for PHR, but not for the next few years. “Lacquer cutting takes careful precision and experience,” he states. “Even though this will be possible in terms of equipment investment, not many mastering engineers can do the work well.” For now, they’ve entrusted Dutch studio 24mastering with cutting their forthcoming records.

“One thing we’re very sure about is that we love music and we love Indonesia”

Though PHR Pressing says the releases currently in its pipeline are by “local labels who trust us”, it’s already aiming for regional impact. PHR Pressing has partnered with Mosta Records, a Singapore record store and label, which will service artists in Singapore, the region, and the rest of the world through Mosta Vinyl Pressing. Mosta has enlisted its own vinyl mastering engineers: Bill Skibbe and Warren Defever of Third Man Mastering (a division of Jack White’s Third Man Records), who will cut the lacquers under Mosta’s purview, before sending each one to PHR’s facilities for manufacturing.

In a press release, Mosta Records co-founder Azri Ali shared his hope of helping Singaporeans – “whether it’s an independent label, underground musician or even an established mainstream artist” – press vinyl, and in so doing have Mosta Vinyl Pressing “become a vehicle in helping the local music scene in Singapore to flourish”. Arnold adds: “We believe they are the right people with the expertise behind them to move this journey forward.”

At some point in the future, PHR Pressing aims to develop its own international distribution infrastructure. But for now, Arnold intends to make good on the biggest selling point of PHR’s offering: a turnaround time of two to four months, almost unprecedented in a time when clients can wait up to a year for their product.

The reason PHR Pressing can turn records around so quickly is simple, Arnold says: they just don’t have a huge backlog yet. It’s possible that might change in the future, but he’s still bullish about their ability to maintain swift turnarounds for the next few years.

And if not? “Maybe [it’ll be] time to invest [in] the next pressing machine.”

Find more info about PHR Pressing here.

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