Doughnut Music Lab sometimes experiments with alternative ways to release music into the world. In January 2025 we released two albums on a 12-inch ‘sleeve-only’ format. Each sleeve is printed on recycled card using plant-based ink, and contains three gorgeous double-sided paper art inserts and a digital download code for the album. However, there is a conspicuous absence of an actual vinyl record, meaning there’s no PVC plastic involved – one of the most environmentally hazardous plastics.
This isn’t an anti-vinyl experiment, and we don’t see a paper ‘sleeve-only and download code’ album release as a one-size-fits-all solution. Instead we see it as an artistic intervention, with any impact coming from its symbolic power – the power of directing attention and imagining alternative ways of being in the world. It’s a prompt to spark conversation around how high-emitting areas of human activity (e.g. energy, transport, food, manufacturing) need an urgent rethink, and hopefully encourages a sense of playful experimentation and reflection on plastic production and carbon-intensive behaviours at both individual and institutional levels. We love records, but we would also love to move towards recording formats that don’t involve extracting new oil from the ground for their production. You can order Doughnut Music Lab albums at the participating shops below.
Diljeet Kaur Bhachu, Double Lives (2025)
A richly textured meditation on self through hypnotic layers of flute, electronics, poetry and Hindustani vocals – Double Lives is the stunning debut album from the multi-talented Glasgow-based artist, poet and activist Diljeet Kaur Bhachu. Recorded with producer John Cavanagh at his home studio.
Available to buy at:
Beautiful Cosmos, Dance Of The Atoms (2025)
A meticulously constructed collection of classic indie pop with a distinctly Glaswegian jangle, Dance of the Atoms is the Field Music-produced debut album from Beautiful Cosmos – the brand new project from wife-and-husband duo Anna Miles (Maple Leaves) and Matt Brennan (Zoey Van Goey, Citizen Bravo).
Available to buy at:
Fell, Futility Rites (2025)
A collaboration between Doughnut Music Lab and Lost Map Records, Futility Rites is a gorgeous evolution of Fell’s 2022 album Mallow’s Marsh — still kaleidoscopic and dreamlike, but with a grittier, more lo-fi texture. Distorted drum machines and lo-fi synths fizz under the surface, especially on the hypnotic new single ‘M.O.S.S.’ — a drifting daydream of a track that meditates on nature, artifice, and our place in between. Housed in a vinyl-style sleeve packed with eco-conscious art: riso prints, recyclable stickers, postcards, and a full art book. No vinyl. No plastic. Just music and visuals that speak for themselves.
Available to buy at: