They look and feel like vinyl but are at the cutting edge of music technology.

A new range of recordable CDs produced by a Sussex company are becoming the latest must-have for people archiving their music collections.

The CD Retro discs are the size and shape of a conventional CD but both sides are black and the top is grooved.

They have been created by MPC Ltd, which makes products ranging from The Simpsons computer keyboards to novelty animal telephones, as loved by TV comic Graham Norton.

Founder Mark Hayward set up the company in a London bedroom when the music business fell into the doldrums in the Nineties.

It now employs 15 people at its headquarters in Victoria Road, Burgess Hill.

Mark, 43, said: "I was in the music industry but sales were tumbling so I looked into other areas.

"After going to an exhibition I thought it would be good to produce Wallace And Gromit dog bowls.

"I went to the BBC and they asked if I had ever made dog bowls before. I hadn't so they wouldn't deal with me.

"The next time I went I called myself the Mouse Pad Company, even though I had never produced mouse pads.

"I said I'd like the licence for Wallace And Gromit mouse pads and they gave it to me without asking if I had made them before.

"Our first customers were Dixons and WH Smith and they ordered 120,000 in total."

From there, the firm broadened to cover a range of cult figures, from Bagpuss to Star Trek. It also started producing mobile phone fascias. Forthcoming lines include Harry Potter and Shrek 2.

Mark said he was particularly pleased people were buying the new CD Retro range as MPC is also a record label.

He said: "We got into CD-Rs about a year ago. They look like old records and are sold in record boxes.

"We developed the style and went out to the Far East to find a company to make them.

"There has been a lot of interest in them through sales at PC World and HMV in a different format. We also have coloured discs coming out soon.

"But a lot of people from the age who collected vinyl are still unaware of them."

Mark is now working on a new web site so items can be bought from the firm directly.

These would include not only the discs and mouse pads but also oddities such as flashing ice cubes, lava lamps and mirror balls.

Tuesday March 23, 2004