Our Vinyl Weighs a Ton: This Is Stones Throw Records certainly manages to effortlessly squeeze a great deal of biographical and musical insight into its incredibly engrossing and comprehensive ninety-four minutes, whilst somehow still finding time for the odd diversion into inspired weirdness.
Over the past twenty years Stones Throw Records has established itself as one of today’s most original and diverse independent record labels in modern music and an important pioneer in the development of underground Hip-Hop. Simultaneously avoiding the commercial music industry and influencing it with a collective of genre defying musicians intent on breaking conventions by simply following their creative instincts. Artists such as Madlib, MF DOOM, Homeboy Sandman, Dam-Funk, Vex Ruffin, James Pants, JonWayne, Chrome Canyon, Dave Dub, and the late J Dilla.
At the centre of it all is DJ and producer Chris Manak, better known as Peanut Butter Wolf. Our Vinyl Weighs a Ton follows his triumphs over tragic adversity and mainstream mediocrity, fervently maintaining an ethos of creative freedom, a personal objective to nurture the sounds he loves into existence, and an all-important sense of humour and absurdity.
Amongst the rare archive footage and enlightening interviews with Stone Throw acts and prominent figures in music (including Tyler The Creator, Mike D, Common, Questlove, and – up to a certain point – an abnormally modest Kanye West), Jeff Broadway’s skilled documentary pin points Manak’s personal and professional relationships with performers Charizma and J. Dilla, and how their untimely deaths had a profound affect on the inception and progression of his fiercely independent record label.
This integral emotional content and the gifted and charismatic collective of Low-Fi renegades and musical misfits that form the Stones Throw family certainly elevate the film beyond the average hagiographic music profile.
Its other enjoyable attribute is a captivating visual strength that proficiently holds the various chapters and inventive segues together. Jeff Broadway and writer/editor Robert Balver were obviously determined to create a cinematic experience that stands apart from most theatrically released documentaries that tend to have the feel of a TV programme that has been blown up to fit the big screen.
Unlike most music documentaries this isn’t a film about musicians gaining the world and blowing it all, or a series of talking heads gratifying pampered egos. This is much more than that, a single beaming light of integrity through the fog of modern commercialization. At its core is a simple and important message; that anything worth doing will always be a struggle, like dragging rocks up a steep hill, but if you can somehow manage to keep pulling in the right direction then the rewards are infinite.
Our Vinyl Weighs a Ton: This is Stones Throw Records is without a doubt one of the best films you’ll encounter on the subject of Hip-Hop and one of the most sincere, inspiring and entertaining documentaries on contemporary music.
