When i started Balkan Vinyl back in 2010, I'd left my previous label Seed in 2006, worked for B12 for a little bit, & needed a new project of my own.

I'd been running I Love Acid as a party since 2007, and really starting to get into acid house, techno & electro in a big way

I spent some time getting it together - six records, each themed by style and assigned a colour - with four acts on each.

Digital was still not the hugest thing, so I pressed CDs with the tracks & remixes/extras, and included them in the sleeves instead of download codes.

Every record was hand numbered & sealed. Tracks from Plaid, B12, Luke Vibert etc but also from unknown artists who were friends & secret identites. I marketed it via MySpace. One record a month from Jan-June 2010. The label was launched.

The next release was a Posthuman album. Rich designed the cover. We did a heavyweight version & a picture disc. fully printed sleeves, with a CD that slipped in and matched the art. Fully printed inners. spot gloss text.

Lost soooo much money but it looked amazing

After that, I started the Rave Wars 7"s. Vintage toy figures from 1977-1985, sealed in blister packs on the front, parody toy packets. Weeks spent gluing them in.

I learnt afterwards that some Star Wars figures were really rare and worth a lot more than I'd been selling the 7"s for. After that I had to become an expert in vintage Star Wrs toys quicksmart. I did three over the years - plus a couple of represses.

The next crazy project was the @WeAreAltern8 / @mark_archer "Armageddon Rave Survival Kit"

Two 12"s of remixes of the classic Altern 8 track Armageddon, on coloured vinyl - plus a bonus 12" with other rarities

...with a t-shirt, white gloves, vicks keyring, dust maks, glowstick, sunglasses & stickers. Hand numbered & sealed with hazard tape.

Sold them on Kickstarter

I made a fatal error working out postage rates and weights, ended up losing quite a bit of money on every full pack I sent out outside the UK.

But it was a cool release :)

I also set up a sub-label, dedicated to acid tracks. was to be hand-stamped heavyweight wax, numbered editions of 303, no represses or digital. I named it after my clubnight (which was named after Luke Vibert's track - with his blessing of course)

The I Love Acid series sold out from the very first one, they still do now.

I did 808 of number 10, where I got to put release of my own tracks alongside legends Luke Vibert, DJ Pierre, & Hardfloor. Number 20 was a Vibert album, also did 808 & 303 copies. Always hand stamped.

The next ridiculous idea was to make a USB stick shaped like a TB-303 and fill it with acid tracks to celebrate 10 years of I Love Acid

I'm not a 3D designer so it took a bit of back & forth to get the design right

I tried to save money (was SO EXPENSIVE TO MAKE) by copying all the tracks onto each stick myself.

So many hours sat at my computer. Ctrl-c ctrl-v, wait....

Should have just paid the extra cash.

Also discovered that USB sticks get stolen in the post. A lot.

My next stupid idea was to do a 7" secretly, and send it out to 100 of the labels most loyal fans without telling them. Completely unannounced. And then just wait to see people wondering or working out what it was on social media.

Another very expensive project (literally cost over a grand all in) but no regrets.

the best thing is, no-one has sold their copy on discogs. If you didn't get one, you can't get one :)

The next money-wasting idea was to do a double album on random coloured vinyl.

No-one had ever done it properly before (there's a few similar-ish ideas from manual lathe cuts, and one record that has a small run of random colours but it's unplayable bad quality)

We worked with @mobineko & livestreamed the entire pressing, with live chat with the engineer while it was happening. A world first.

The album also shipped with a tube map to an imagined city, an artwork print, & there was an ambient version of the album on an accompanying cassette. First time I'd ever done a tape!

We repeated the random colour & livestream process with Luke Vibert's album a year later. Luke was on the video stream choosing the colours live as they were offered as options from the pressing plantin the YouTube chat!

Right now I'm putting out a new release every Wednesday. It's proving to be a challenge! Vinyl, tapes, digital, & t-shirts. Club bangers to ambient spacey soundtracks, wonky electronica & electro. Support so far has been amazing. I hope I don't overdo it though, TOO MANY RELEASES

In the future....another Rave Wars 7". I've already collected a couple hundred figures ready to go. First track was approved this week :)

plus more I Love Acid 12"s (I have up to Number 28 ready) & some great vinyl releases

Today, I'm really proud that the @hardtonmusic pink 12" is very nearly sold out on Bandcamp. A small number of copies will be in shops next week.

As anyone who runs an indie label will tell you: it's a labour of love. there's very little money to be made but a whole lot of joy. And it's addictive!

So to anyone who's supported me (or even just made it to the end of this twitter thread) - THANKYOU x