Featured Essay: Analogue Meets Digital: The World of the Vinyl DJ YouTuber

by Jason Bombach

 I watch a lot of YouTube. From the histories of early 20th century illustrators to in-depth analysis of the Weird Al Show to UK panel shows and hate watching Grand Designs (rich people have no taste), YouTube continues to be my go to time waster. But lest you think I’m spending all my time in front of a screen, rotting away, fear not. I clean for a living, so half the time I’m listening to YouTube (often at x2 speed, which has ruined my brain) and rotting away while also working. So when a thumbnail of a familiar looking two turntable set up came up on my feed, I was intrigued. The channel, Analog Mixtape aka Mark Garitson, is part of a growing niche on YouTube of vinyl only DJ sets. There are several channels dedicated to people spinning rare records, niche genres or just straight bangers on vinyl as if it was a warehouse party and I personally love it. 

  What attracted me to the videos wasn’t just a love of records but also because I spent time DJing on my local college community radio station, WCBN 88.3 FM Ann Arbor. The only station to play the Bottom 40. Turn your dial to the left and rip the knob off. I loved my time on the air, inflicting my musical taste on overnight listeners between doing strange bits and interviews. It was some of the best times in my life. So, instinctively, when I saw these channels, I, like the straight white cis man I am, thought, why not me? Should I start a second YouTube channel just for DJing and relive my radio glory days? With that in mind, I reached out to a few channels I like to get the inside scoop of how it works and how this whole niche came about. 

  I started by asking the obvious, who the people behind these channels were and how they got started. Of the several channels I asked, the folks that got back to me were Jona of Yawaraka Jazz, Pablo & Chelo of Blas Armando Productions, and the aforementioned Mark from Analog Mixtape.  It seemed all three of them started DJing for a similar reason, a large collection and a love of sharing it.

(These answers have been lightly edited for context and grammar)

Jona: I bought my first record in August 2022 because I was fascinated by the album artwork of Yellow Magic Orchestra. I was thrilled when it arrived, but I had no equipment to play it on, so I purchased a full audio setup just to listen to that record. Around the same time, a jazz record shop called Judgment Records opened in my neighborhood. Its owner, Hanawa, introduced me to a wide range of jazz records, and that was when I truly fell in love with vinyl collecting. I started DJing in December 2023. I’d always enjoyed relaxing at home with coffee or drinks while listening to music, but a friend suddenly asked me to DJ at an event. I bought a mixer and turntables for that occasion and practiced for about two weeks before my debut. Honestly, there wasn’t much deep thought behind it— it just happened naturally.

P&C: We’re both big music lovers. During the big vinyl comeback of 2007-2008, we started bringing records from Europe and Japan. In the beginning, Pablo was more interested in electronic music and experimental genres like krautrock. Chelo, musician and producer, had a musical curiosity that was closer to psychedelic albums and alternative genres like shoegaze.

  At some point, we began getting together to listen to and share our own material. This is how the first mixes began, followed by the sets, and eventually our first live performance, which was facilitated by contact with the local underground scene. As the project consolidated, our vinyl purchases increased exponentially, thus starting our large collection.

Mark: I started collecting records when I was really young. My collection started with stuff I’d get from my dad and uncles. My grandfather was a jazz musician and I got a great 50s and 60s jazz collection from him. That is how I was introduced to it and I’ve just never stopped all these years. As far as DJing goes, I was just always the guy that had records and if you came over to my house, I would play records for everybody. I was the DJ at my brother‘s wedding before I even had equipment. I had to borrow turntables and I used some extra house speakers I had laying around. It’s just something I was always drawn to.

  Each of these channels has found success by finding their genre to play in. This love of the obscure is a lovely reminder that there are music nerds like me the world over. But I wondered if they also had the same trouble I have of hunting down new and interesting things. 

Jona: As the name suggests, Yawaraka Jazz focuses exclusively on jazz. “Yawaraka” is a Japanese word that conveys softness, warmth, and comfort. It reflects the kind of jazz I want to share— music that feels good to live with.

  Most of my records come from Judgment Records. When I’m looking for unique Japanese jazz, I often visit Universound in Koenji. If neither store has what I need, I order from trusted record shops across Japan.

P&C: We have a clear predilection for the 70s German experimental music scene, also known as Krautrock, which is our trademark sonic signature. In general, we enjoy anything atmospheric, psychedelic, and trippy.

  Our musical research approach is very old-school: we read books and talk to people. We really enjoy going to record stores in person, taking the time to dig through all the bins, and talking to the shop people. Of course, we use the internet too; searching the deepest corners of the web for lost gems, rarities, links, and all sorts of elements that allow us to chart a path.

Mark: I’m not really genre specific but my main interests are Jamaican reggae 45s and garage and punk rock. I spend a lot of time on Discogs “digging” for early Jamaican records. There are a couple of really great sellers on there that have amazing inventories that you can go through. I’m introduced to a lot of new stuff just by going through those records and listening to sound clips. That’s my main resource for buying those records because where I live in the Midwest they’re very hard to find. For the punk side of things I’m really lucky to have a couple of great record shops near me. Feel it records in Cincinnati and BlindRage records in Dayton always have something cool. Tremendo Garaje on instagram and YouTube is a great spot to find out about new punk and garage records too. 

  Mark was the only person I talked to from close to my home here in Michigan. And he, like me, realized, a lot of these channels are from outside the US.

Mark: I think the most popular and frankly the best ones [channels] are based outside the US for sure. I’m from the Cincinnati/Dayton area in Ohio and the record culture here is great. We have a lot of great record shops. Some of the coolest labels putting out vinyl right now. Feel It Records and Colemine Records to name a few. Lots of great DJs too. 

  In fact, a lot of the channels I’ve found, instead of having a niche genre they focus on, instead base their mixes on location. You can find hour long sets of Turkish Hits or Latin Psych or Soviet Grooves. It fulfills one of the original promises of the internet and introduces you to corners of the world you might not have known existed. In an effort to further bridge that gap, I asked the other two what the record scene is like where they are.

Jona: Record culture in Japan is very strong, and I feel that vinyl-only DJ events are becoming more popular. While digital formats might have technical advantages, vinyl offers a warmth, depth, and liveliness that are hard to replicate. From the comments on my channel, many viewers enjoy the ritual of selecting a record, placing it on the turntable, and carefully dropping the needle. It reminds me of the Japanese tea ceremony— there’s beauty and meaning in the gestures themselves.

P&C: Buenos Aires is an incredible city that offers a vast and unique cultural spectrum, especially when it comes to music. Events happen practically every day, from DJs and bands to parties; the offering is endless. The vinyl scene has also grown significantly recently, with several new specialty bars offering all kinds and genres. Perhaps the only downside is the high price of records.

  So I guess no matter where I go in the world, my wallet isn’t safe. But no matter how universal record collecting may be, it’s one thing to collect and play stuff for friends or a party, and completely another to take the party to YouTube. It feels like a strange pairing of the analog and the digital. What attracted these folks to subjecting themselves to the internet as a whole?

Jona: It began simply, I wanted to bring the sound of my home setup with me anywhere. I was surprised to discover that recordings of vinyl still retain much of the “vinyl sound,” even through Bluetooth speakers or headphones. Since I also happened to own a good camera, I started filming the sessions. The video files were large, so I looked for a platform to upload them for free— and landed on YouTube. I never expected the channel to gain as many subscribers as it has now.

P&C: It’s something we’ve been dreaming about for a long time. The possibility of doing a set from the comfort of our living room was incredibly tempting, and at one point, we thought, “It’s like going back to our roots, to our get-togethers, only this time we’ll film it.”

  So one day we made up our minds: we bought a six-pack, set up the camera, put the pothos plant over there, and that’s how it all began.

Mark: I started the channel just for the fun of it. I had watched  a lot of other vinyl DJs on YouTube and thought it was cool. I had the records already and it was just a new way to interact with my collection. It’s a great way to reconnect with records I hadn’t thought of or played for awhile. 

  I honestly really resonate with what Mark said there. I have close to 1,700 records at this point and I know there are gems in there that I haven’t pulled out in an age. Playing for other people or the internet writ large, seems like a great excuse to explore this collection I’ve amassed. 

  But it couldn’t be as simple as it sounds. You can’t just point a camera at your setup and upload. There must be hurdles to clear. The biggest one I could think of is that old dragon copyright. Since the corporization (is that a word?) of the internet, there’s been a crack down on protecting intellectual property (ugh) that affects many of my favorite channels. How do these channels avoid that?

Jona: Copyright has definitely been a challenge. For example, a Japan-only Herbie Hancock record I own is playable in the US but blocked in Japan on YouTube. When this happens, the entire video becomes unviewable. Although it feels disappointing, I sometimes re-record the audio with a different pressing or version of the album and re-upload the video to keep it available.

P&C: We consider it part of the process. We know there’s a chance the set we recorded could end up blocked due to copyright issues, and the only way to check is to upload it to a secondary YouTube channel first. In cases where the material is copyright blocked, we usually re-record the set, removing or replacing the track in question.

  We’ve only had this problem three times since the beginning of the channel, with the tracks: “Glass” by Yukihiro Takahashi, “You’re Gonna Miss Me” by The 13th Floor Elevators, and “Cavern” by Liquid Liquid.

  It’s important for us to make it clear that the channel has no monetization, so all the ads played by YouTube go directly to the copyright owners.

Mark: The copyright claims are only a problem if you’re trying to make money on your videos. I don’t monetize my videos and the copyright holder actually gets paid from my channel views. I did have one video taken down because the system mistook a reggae song for a Rolling Stones song though. It’s not perfect but the artist get paid. 

  It seems the best remedy is just be that much more obscure in your picks for a set to avoid the automated ban hammer. Creativity saves the day again.

  In the end, will I start yet another endeavor and start a whole channel dedicated to spinning records like I did in the (not so) old days? Probably not. For the same reason I gave up radio (I work 70 hour weeks, 7 days a week, plus the ever expanding room of plates I spin like an anarchist art collective, organizing with the IWW, the YouTube channel I already neglect, etc.) I just don’t think I have the time. But if I ever do, it’s good to know there will be a whole corner of the internet open to it. Until I change my mind inevitably, be sure to check out these channels I’ve talked to, Yawaraka Jazz, Blas Armando Productions, and Analog Mixtape, as well as others like My Analog Journey, erronius, and for non-vinyl sets, Ackerlady. It’s just good to know the internet still has small corners doing cool stuff. Even if it is on a giant platform like YouTube. Long live the niche and death to the algorithm.

Jason Bombach is an aging left wing punk who makes music under the name History History, writes, and shoots film. But mostly he scrubs toilets for money and is an organizer for the IWW. Check out his YouTube channel Death to The Algorithm or don’t. Yell at him on Bluesky at thecurmudgeon.bsky.social