Record Store #19 – Kuching, Borneo
Borneo Record
1st Floor, Electra House Shopping Centre, Kuching, Borneo
Who needs plurals when you’re in Kuching? Borneo Records? Nah, Borneo Record is where it’s at. Check the neon signs in the photo above for irrefutable evidence.
As we squeezed in amongst the fixtures of karaoke CDs and scanned the small shop for anything interesting, I almost dismissed the possibility of anything good being found in this eccentrically named store. I had hoped for wax, but all I could see was trash.
Turning around slowly so as not to knock over a display of The Beatles Karoake Version CDs (it was that tight, and the offerings were that depressing), I noticed a hidden display behind the till.
Behind the till sat a small stack of a certain something I hadn’t seen in months. Something that without it, I had been having withdrawal symptoms:
A tidy, untouched, small smattering of vinyl stood behind the cash register.
Feeling unusually empowered by this startling discover, I asked the friendly member of staff hanging around me (they have a ‘super’ habit of following you around the shop) if I could take a look at the beauties.
She shrugged her shoulders, narrowed her eyes and nodded, as if questioning how I, a westerner no doubt with a hi-fi and iPod, could be interested in a format so old and so ‘backwards’. Asia is a continent where the future is technology and anything else, including old recorded formats, is left behind, thrown away or sold to poor people.
The collection of vinyl records was underwhelming, unvaried and over-priced, but all that seemed irrelevant as I flicked through the square covers, the cardboard corners bending under the weight of my excited fingers.
1980s pop was the flavour here, with such ‘classics’ as Bucks Fizz’s Are You Ready, Styx’s Kilroy Was Here and obscure bands that might have made it in Malaysia, but never scratched the surface of the British charts.
The vinyl was all priced at 20RM, and although I’m fairly sure I could have haggled it down to fifteen, or maybe even ten, but I decided to hold onto my pennies and wait for something other than Cheryl Baker to cross my path.
Total Purchases:
A Camp – Colonia – £1.36 [Tracklisting]
Armand Van Helden – Ghetto Blaster – £1 [Tracklisting]
Club Azuli 1 – Mixed By Dave Piccioni – £0.48 [Tracklisting]
Club Azuli Part 2 – Mixed By Dave Piccioni – £0.79 [Tracklisting]
Chemical Brothers, The: Brothers Gonna Work It Out – £2.77 [Tracklisting]
Defected In The House – Mixed By Copyright – £0.79 [Tracklisting]
DJ Hardy Heller – Mix In Motion – £1 [Tracklisting]
DJ Shadow – The New Collection – £2.38
Elektrik 02 – Mixed By King Unique & Nubreed – £0.59 [Tracklisting]
Fabric 25 – Mixed By Carl Craig – £0.59 [Tracklisting]
Fabric 26 – Mixed By Global Communication – £0.59 [Tracklisting]
Le Le – Breakfast 12″ – £8.24 [Tracklisting]
Moby – Last Night – £0.59 [Tracklisting]
Roger Waters – The Wall Live In Berlin – £3.64 [Tracklisting]
Santos – Camels 12″ – £1.18 [Tracklisting]
Samim: Flow – £1.98 [Tracklisting]
Underworld – Back To Mine – £4.05 [Tracklisting]
Underworld – Cowgirl (Remixes) 12″ – £1.18 [Tracklisting]
Underworld – Underneath The Radar 12″ – £8.91 [Tracklisting]
Total Spend: £42.09
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