Het Groene Veld · Amsterdam Noord

A vinyl studio, a record shop, a cutting room, a label. Analog to the core — and built on community.

STUDIO·RECORD SHOP·CUTTING·RECORDING·LABEL

Out now on Earth Works

The best way to support us is by buying our music. Roots, dub and heavyweight riddims — pressed, cut and distributed from Noord. Every record you pick up keeps the lathe turning and the doors open. Hover to hold a sleeve still; click to buy.

The full catalogue, digital & vinyl ↗ Pressings & the back catalogue ↗ Selections from the shop floor ↗ Vintage, exclusives & lathe cuts ↗
01

Record Shop

Hand-picked vintage records, label exclusives and rarities you won't find anywhere else. We push the records — that's the heart of the place.

VINTAGE · EXCLUSIVES
02

Record Cutting

We cut records in-house. Lathe cuts, dubplates and short runs — your sound carved into wax, the way it was always meant to be.

LATHE · DUBPLATE
03

Recording Studio

Analog recording on vintage gear, tape and tube. A real room with a real sound for independent makers across every genre.

ANALOG · TAPE
04

Label & Services

Distribution, label services and a home for the music. We help independent artists get their work pressed, cut and out into the world.

LABEL · DISTRO

She's been part of our family for over 35 years — a living relic of recording history, and she still turns in our room.

A documentary about the Ampex MM‑1000 — a legendary, iconic machine. And a tribute to our friend Rej.

The machine you see here is Bertha — an Ampex MM‑1000, one of the great analog multitrack tape recorders ever built, and one of the machines that changed how music is made. She lives in our studio. That's why she matters to us, and that's why we made this film.

It's a love letter to our friend Rej, and to the analog era — a time when making a record meant gathering in a room and needing each other. Tape hiss, warm iron, human hands, community. That's the era we love, and the one we keep alive.

Bertha is a piece of recording history — the Ampex MM‑1000 is the lead image on Wikipedia's history of multitrack recording ↗

Jah Works Ampex
Bertha — the Ampex MM-1000 — arriving at the studio
Bertha herself — the Ampex MM‑1000, on the day she came home.
Rej & Bertha — documentary still YouTube Coming soon
Dominic ‘Rej’ Forte
Jah Rej · 1957–2024

Dominic “Rej” Forte 1957 – 2024

Jah Rej — producer, engineer and mixer, and founder of Jah Works Records. He brought Bertha home in the late 1980s, kept her alive, and made that big warm sound for more than three decades. Bertha is his Ampex MM‑1000: an 8‑track, one‑inch multitrack tape recorder, built to make the very best sound a machine could.

This film was made with him, and for him — the story of getting the old girl running again, in his own words. It is livicated to Rej. Ever remembered.

A film by Xchematic · Directed by Carlos Mats · Produced by Ben King for Earth Works Amsterdam.

Perfect, but never exactly perfect

Sound was our first language, older than words

A song is a moment in time. When a room plays together and nails it, you catch magic.

Get the room and the feeling right and a singer feels at home enough to sing it true. It comes out the way nature is — perfect, but never exactly perfect, and that human wobble is the life of it. Exactly perfect is android, not real.

It's a beautiful thing, to catch it live. That's what Earth Works is for: the records are how it travels, but the expression is why it exists at all.

Where it all happens

Reels turning, needles dropping, friends through the door. Push the Polaroids around.

Vinyl going strong!

The record keeps climbing. Vinyl has grown every single year since 2006 — a worldwide revival that's now one of the fastest-growing formats in music, outselling the CD. That's the world Earth Works lives in: we cut it, we press it, we spin it.

Global vinyl revenue · US$ billions · source: IFPI Global Music Report

Grab the record to spin it, or lift the tonearm onto the disc to play. Pick a speed — 33⅓, 45 or 78 — then dub it out on the desk: echo, reverb, filter and the siren.

Speed
RPM
Earth Works Amsterdam
EARTH WORKS · DIRECT DRIVE
Dub desk
Spotify

The Earth Works selection

A rolling playlist straight off the shop floor — what's spinning between the crates and the cutting lathe.

Open in Spotify ↗
Instagram

Slices of life

Cuts, sessions and slices of life from the studio at Het Groene Veld. The whole feed lives on Instagram ↗.

Follow @earthworks_amsterdam ↗

Represent the crew

Tees, totes and the odd oddity — printed in small runs and sold off the rack at the shop. Roots, dub and Earth Works iron, on your chest and over your shoulder.

Shop the rack ↗
Earth Works merch — tees and totes hanging in the shop
The rack at Het Groene Veld.

Come create
with us

Earth Works lives at Het Groene Veld — The Green Field — in Amsterdam Noord. Records on the walls, reels on the machines, and time that runs a little slower once you're through the door. Drop us a line before you come.

Across the water
from Centraal

Earth Works is at Het Groene Veld in Amsterdam Noord — hop the free GVB ferry behind Centraal and you're here in minutes.

≈ 12 min from Centraal
  • AddressHet Groene Veld
    Amsterdam Noord, NL
  • From CentraalFree GVB ferry across the IJ, then a short hop — about 12 minutes door to door.
  • Before you comeMessage us so someone's there to open up.
Open in Google Maps ↗

Good to know

Where is Earth Works?

At Het Groene Veld in Amsterdam Noord — a few minutes across the IJ from Centraal on the free GVB ferry. See the map above.

Can I just drop by?

Yes — come hang out! We're around during working hours, 9am–6pm. If you want to be sure someone's free for you, drop us a line first by email or Instagram.

What goes on at Earth Works?

A record shop (vintage records & label exclusives), in-house record cutting, analog recording, and label & distribution services for independent artists.

What record sizes do you cut?

We cut 7″ and 10″ lathe-cut records, with 12″ on request. Cutting is lathe-cut / short-run and dubplates — not large pressing runs.

Can you press a full vinyl run?

We specialise in lathe cuts, dubplates and short runs rather than big pressing plants. Get in touch and we'll point you the right way for your project.

Do you buy and sell secondhand records?

Yes — vintage stock, rarities and exclusives. Crate-dig in person, or browse on Bandcamp and Discogs.

Can I record at the studio?

Yes — analog recording on vintage gear and tape, open to makers across every genre. Drop us a line about your project and we'll talk it through.

Site & photography by xchematic Mats