Evolution Music

A Major Milestone: The Ovines’ London Reign Pressed on Evovinyl

A Major Milestone: The Ovines' London Reign Pressed on Evovinyl

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Years ago, we at Roulette looked at sustainability in the music industry, searching for environmentally friendly alternatives to what we produced. One of the largest obstacles we found was the lack of alternatives to PVC for pressing vinyl records. We couldn’t find one. So we looked into doing it ourselves. As everyone knows, that is how Evolution Music was founded.

What started with the belief that there’s a better way turned into years of development, more setbacks than we expected, and a lot of trial and error. There were points where it didn’t feel like it was going to work. But, with a lot of support from great individuals and organisations within the music industry, we kept going, because the problem hadn’t gone away, and neither had our reasons for wanting to solve it. Eventually, Evolution Music produced the world’s first bioplastic record, completely free of harmful fossil fuels: Evovinyl.

Now we’re at the point where, at Roulette, we’ve actually achieved our original goal. We’re able to produce the full run of The Ovines’ debut album “London Reign” on Evovinyl, and our future artists will follow the same standard. Seeing it happen, on a real record, for one of Roulette’s bands, and the knowledge that all of the future bands will do the same, is different from talking about it as a goal on a whiteboard. It’s the first time it’s felt finished rather than in progress.

This is a major milestone for us. It’s the achievement of the original goal we set out to reach at Roulette Records, and the entire reason Evolution Music exists in the first place. We wanted a more sustainable option than PVC, and we didn’t stop until we had one. We’re now at the forefront of the PVC alternatives being produced today, which is something we genuinely didn’t expect to be able to say when we started.

But we’ve come to realise this was never really just a Roulette problem. Every label pressing vinyl on PVC is pressing the same problem into every record they put out, and we know that doesn’t have to be the case anymore. What began as us trying to fix something in our own supply chain has turned into something we think the wider industry needs, and can now actually have.

That’s the part of this we’re most excited about going forward. Not just what Evovinyl means for Roulette, but what it can mean for a music industry that’s been waiting for an alternative that didn’t exist yet. We want to see more labels, more artists, and more of this industry we love pressing records the way we now can. This milestone isn’t an ending for us. It’s the point where the goal we set out to reach becomes something much bigger than the reason we started.

Thank you to everyone who’s helped us get here: the people who tested early versions with us, the ones who believed in the idea before it worked, and everyone who’s been patient while we figured it out. You know who you are.

London Reign is available now, pressed on Evovinyl through Roulette Records.

The Ovines — London Reign
Pressed on Evovinyl
Released by Roulette Records

The Ovines

Formed in South East London in 2017, The Ovines have built a reputation for energetic live shows, sharp songwriting and a sound that brings classic British influence into the modern day. Drawing inspiration from the Two Tone movement and bands such as The Selecter, The Beat and Madness, alongside the songwriting of The Jam, Dr Feelgood, Dire Straits, Gang of Four, Buzzcocks and The Beatles, the band blends ska-influenced rhythms, rock’n’roll spirit and punk attitude into something distinctly their own.

Originally formed by a group of friends brought together by a shared love of music. The Ovines take their name from a joke made by frontman Matt Adams’ father about his son’s affection for sheep. The humour has remained a key part of the band’s identity ever since, with camaraderie and good times sitting at the heart of everything they do.

Following the release of their debut EP, Two Bucks and a Bottle of Ketchup, in 2025, The Ovines have continued to build momentum through sold-out headline shows across the UK, European dates and support slots with artists including Buzzcocks and The Libertines.

Their debut album, London Reign, captures the spirit of growing up in South East London, working hard, living for weekends, football, pubs and friendship, while breathing new life into classic sounds that inspired the band in the first place.

London Reign

London Reign combines upbeat rhythms, driving guitars and sharp storytelling with themes of friendship, hard work, pubs and characters encountered along the way. The arrival of guitarist William Jackson brought a fresh dynamic to the band’s songwriting, helping to shape a collection of songs that lean further into the ska influence that has always been at the heart of The Ovines’ sound.

Recorded at The Albion Rooms in Margate and produced by Jason Stafford, London Reign is an energenic and raw British debut album that celebrates everyday life while breathing new life into the classic sounds that inspired the band in the fisrt place.

May 2026: Recognition, Connection and a Material Breakthrough

May 2026 was one of the more significant months in Evolution Music’s short history. Not because everything went perfectly but because the combination of industry recognition, new relationships, and genuine product progress gave us a clearer picture of where we are and where we’re heading.

Music Week Awards

Evolution Music had been nominated for the Music Consumer Innovation Award at the Music Week Awards 2026, and while any nomination is welcome, the nomination meant more than that. To us, it was another step in us being recognised by the music industry, alongside some of the biggest names in the business, for work that sits at the very core of what we do felt like a genuine milestone.

Innovation isn’t a word we use lightly. It’s the foundation everything we build is built on. Our goal has always been straightforward, even if the path to get there hasn’t been; to move the music industry away from its reliance on fossil-fuel-based materials and toward something better. Evovinyl is the first door we’ve opened in that process, but it won’t be the last.

What sets Evovinyl apart is worth being clear about. Unlike other products that describe themselves as sustainable vinyl, most of which take existing PVC formulas and swap out a small percentage of the harmful chemicals, we went back to the beginning. Working with our partners, we developed Evovinyl from the ground up, using natural waste products from sugarcane and all-natural polymers, with one specific goal in mind: to eliminate the dangerous chemicals in PVC entirely, not just reduce them. The difference matters.

On the night itself, the award went to RCA. That’s the nature of these things, and we mean it genuinely when we say the room was full of work worth celebrating. What the evening gave us was something harder to manufacture: time with people who care about the same things we do. Old connections picked back up, new ones made, and a real sense of the mood within the industry right now.

What struck us most was the energy coming from the grassroots. Independent artists, small labels, organisations doing things collaboratively.

Into The Label Market

The second significant event of the month was the Independent Label Market, held at Coal Drops Yard, King’s Cross on the 9th of May. We shared a table with Saviour Music, which gave us the opportunity to put Evovinyl on a turntable and let people hear it for themselves. That direct contact with consumers and industry figures is something you can’t replicate online; people respond differently when the record is physically in front of them. Allowing us to tell our story in person and for people to get instant feedback from consumers and producers. Something we have always felt we needed more of. The response was great, leading to interesting conversations about sustainability, the life cycle of PVC and the lifetime of a vinyl record.

What was notable about the day was how many other exhibitors were engaging with sustainability in some form. From clothing brands rethinking their supply chains to vinyl producers like Good Neighbour Music addressing vinyl production methodology, it was clear that these conversations are becoming more mainstream within the independent sector. Whether that translates into meaningful change at scale remains to be seen, but the direction of travel was encouraging.

Brighton and the Sustainability Conversation

The Brighton Music Conference was the event we had been looking forward to most in May. Through our connected venture Brighton Vinyl, we already have roots in the city, which made the conference feel like a natural fit rather than unfamiliar territory.

The four-day event gave us genuine access to a part of the music industry we don’t always get to engage with directly, electronic music scene. It opened doors to conversations with labels and artists we hadn’t previously had the opportunity to speak with, and that kind of targeted networking is difficult to replicate at more formal events.

The highlight for us was our CEO Marc Carey taking part as a panelist on the Electronic Music Leading Innovation In Sustainability panel and covering real-world case studies from within electronic music culture, including what has worked, what hasn’t, and what meaningful change in the industry actually requires. Marc also hosted a separate panel focused specifically on vinyl and it’s future. Talking about everything from the use of the material itself and the processes used to press it.

Pressing Into Full Commercialisation

We have had a release with Will Spencer with his EP The Real World

During the Independent Label Market we had the incredible news that our latest variant of the material was pressing successfully on both hand and automated presses. Our previous Evovinyl variant had reached a point where it performed reliably on hand pressing machines, but remained inconsistent when used on automated pressing equipment which is a limitation that presented a real barrier to full commercialisation.

This month we tested our latest material variant, and the results were exactly what we wanted. It performs reliably on both hand and automated pressing machines.

That may sound like a technical detail, but the implications are substantial. Automated pressing is the backbone of commercial vinyl production. Without consistent performance on that equipment, scaling Evovinyl beyond small and specialist runs was not a realistic prospect. With it, the path to full commercial production becomes considerably more straightforward.

We are cautious about overstating where we are in the process. There is still work to do. But this is one of the most significant material milestones we have reached to date, and it changes what the next phase of Evolution Music looks like in a meaningful way.

May also saw the release of Will Spencer pressing his EP The Real World on Evovinyl. It is a record that means a great deal to Will personally, and having it released on our material.

Looking Ahead

May was, by any measure, a significant month for Evolution Music. From award nominations to industry events, new artist releases to material breakthroughs, the threads that have been running through everything we have built are starting to come together in a tangible way. The conversations we are having with artists, labels, pressing plants, and the wider industry, are more serious and more frequent than they have ever been. The interest is there. The material is ready. The next step is commercialisation, and we are closer to that than we have ever been.

If you are an artist, label, or pressing plant who wants to understand what Evovinyl could mean for your releases, we would love to hear from you.