Roxy Records & Trading

02-15 Excelsior Shopping Centre, 5 Coleman Street, Singapore 179805

Fax: 63345705 Tel: 6377783

Opening Hours: 11.30am – 9.30pm (Closed On Sundays & Public Holidays)

In a city where the musical fads change faster than the traffic signals of the busy streets Roxy Records is something of a haven.  Situated on the second floor of a plush shopping centre, mere metres from the pulsing droves of North Bridge Roads, the store offers a tranquil retreat  from the world of iPhones with a plethora of gently spinning wax.

The glass plate windows of the entrance, underneath The Specials-esque font of the sign,  are the first signs that the store is above your average musical shop fodder. Rare boxsets line the front displays, offering collected Radiohead albums, old recordings of special gigs and sought-after vinyl. Beyond the sheen a labyrinth of boxed vinyl greets musical explorers. The musty-smelling collection dominates tables, racks and floorspace,  forcing one to shuffle rather than walk from one heap to the next.

The friendly owner tells us that the store is celebrating its 48th anniversary, an achievement in itself in the constantly evolving landscape of the city. Bizarrely the store pre-dates the shopping centre it is in. Apparently when their old building was demolished to make room for the mall, they simply moved in.  The owner also tells us that the birthday celebrations mean that they are offering 30% off all purchases on everything, apart from the unbelievable rare stuff, such as The Beatle’s Anthology 1 on vinyl! With no further encouragement needed, we get digging.

Over the next half an hour we find many a gem that almost convince us to part with our cash. From albums my dad would want as much as I would (Bob Dylan – Another Side Of Dylan, Neil Young – Harvest Moon), to dance-floor slammers that I’m still frustrated I don’t own – Slam’s Positive Education [Carl Cox Remix] or  the un-credited Electronic Battle Weapon 7 (produced by The Chems).

As my other half picks up a couple of Placebo remix 7”’s, the owner chats to me about the request service the store offers, telling me that if there is anything I want they can get it or track it down. This kind of old-school service, sticking two-fingers up at Discogs and eBay, is admirable and a rare link to the pre-internet state of affairs, in which if you wanted something imported or out-of-print you went to your local expert, rather than your web browser.

Record stores don’t get much more admirable, or well stocked, than this.

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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Borneo Record

1^st 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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Polysound Music

Kota Kinabulu, Borneo, Malaysia

A strange, lesser-seen breed of record store lurks on the streets of Borneo’s city Kota Kinabalu. Straddling a space within a series of terraced shops, opposite the occasionally open town supermarket (trading hours depend on the moods of the whimsical management), is Polysound Music – a record store that sells cassette albums and little else.

If I saw this shop in England I would assume that with its cassette-only stock it was being ironic and kitsch, slanted toward teenagers and new-wave fans. Yet, given the lack of decent record stores anywhere in east Borneo, this musical morsel seems to be the place to procure legitimate non-pirated music.

Having assumed the record store was a write-off due to its dated format, I was surprised – the place was an Aladdin’s den of sorts. Great records lined the walls and racks of the small dwelling, the new-age and quasi-religious rubbish I expected  relegated to the shadows. Anyone with a memory that reaches as far back as the year 2000, can probably remember how cute  Radiohead’s Kid A looked in a small cassette case, spurring me with such sweet nostalgia that I found myself fingering my wallet, weighing up the possible purchase.

Elsewhere the subliminal Heat soundtrack made an appearance (the soundtrack is a blend of Brian Eno and Moby – sublimely genius), as does Chemical Brother’s anthem-filled Dig Your Own Hole, and Nirvana’s Outcestide.

A general price of 20RM (£3.50) per cassette dissuaded me from making any rash purchase. But leaving the shop, regardless of a lack of purchase, I felt slightly less musically-starved than when I entered.

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

Music Store
Dongsi Nandjie, Beijing, China

The jewel in Beijing’s crown, Music Store is possibly one of the best record shops in Asia, let alone China or its capital.  A reprise amongst the dull smatterings of shoe and trinket shops that make up Dongsi road, the oddly shaped shop front and soft neon blue sign soothe customers into the realms of vinyl and beyond.

Inside we are greeted by an enthusiastic gang of shop workers / people hanging out, and who, on learning of my interest in the Manchurian band, play what they say is the nearest China has to Joy Division. To be honest, it sounds closer to a band imitating Interpol imitating Curtis & co.,  but surrogate bands are never high on my agenda of tastes anyway.

Surrounded by framed iconic photos of Jagger, Lenon and Cobain etc, we browse the highly stacked shelves of vinyl, which slowly dissolve into a wide-ranging collection of CDs. We slow down as we pass a whole shelf dedicated to The Beatles on re-pressed vinyl, meander through the imported LPs (why do Japan always get the good stuff?), before speed back up again on the sight of The Spice Girls ‘Wanna’, a 12” press from Hong Kong in the mid nineties’.

Its not long before I find something I can’t resist – in the shape of Underworld’s Back To Mine CD (in-case you don’t know, Back To Mine is a series of musical compilations, in which an artist/ group is asked to choose a selection or mix of music that they would play at an end-of-nighter at their place). They don’t just have Underworld’s mix, lining the shelves are similar ‘BTM’ outings of Carl Craig, Groove Armada, Royksopp, Everything But The Girl….

The assistant plays the CD over the shops PA for us, and Underworld’s intricate mix of hip-hop, acid, house and all things tribal bowls me over. Flying from Aphex Twin to TLC to Dead Prez, and introducing me to the legend who is Gil Scott Heron, the mix shouldn’t work, but it does, beautifully.

Unable to resist, I take the CD to the desk, lay down forty-five yuan, and leave the coolest shop in Beijing China.

Purchase:

Underworld – Back To Mine – £4.05 [Tracklisting]

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

Audio Visual

Baijizhaung Lu, Beijing

Situated amongst the discount clothing outlets and small mini marts of Beijing’s cheap-to-shop Baijzhaung region, Audio Visual stands out amongst a dirge of pirate-CD, and street food vendors.

Enticing us through its plate glass door with its selection of chart CDs, local music and, dubious compilations (think happy hardcore and Kenny G covers ), we  venture forward into the depths of the shop,  enduring open-mouth  staring from the staff huddled behind the cash desk (staring, like in India, is something you have no choice but to whilst in China).

Whilst the store certainly lacked soul or character, it more than made up for it in bargain prices. During the twenty minutes or so we spent browsing the aisles I don’t think we saw a price sticker higher than 40Y (around £4/ $6).  We spy The Beatles’ Part Masters (both volumes) for 22Y, and feel our wallets loosen, but having not bought a new album for three months (!) decide to opt for something more contemporary.

I flick through the latest release selection. Manic Street Preacher’s Journal For Plague Lovers album is tauntingly tempting – a concept album of sorts, with the bands finally recording the songs that missing band-member Richie Edwards. Instead I decide to go for a gamble purchase instead, picking up A Camp’s Colonia. A Camp are Nina Persson’s (of The Cardigans) new outfit, whom I had stumbled across on a cover CD of The Word earlier this year.

Priced at only 15Y (£1.36) it’s a steal and gives me an excuse to leave the lackluster shop and its gapping audience of staff members.

Purchase:

A Camp – Colonia – £1.36 [Tracklisting]

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 – Cowgirl (Remixes) 12″ – £1.18 [Tracklisting]

Underworld – Underneath The Radar 12″ – £8.91 [Tracklisting]

Total Spend: £38.04

OD Records

Laoying Shao Road, Fenghuang, China

On the banks of the calmly flowing river Tuo, in the back water river-town of Fenghuang, sits  OD Record store.  Narrow and quaint, snugly camouflaged by tea shops and  food stores; a record store that could easily be unseen by even the most observant eye.

We enter the shop, which has more in common with a long slim corridor than your average store (the idea of browsing space, having not really caught on), and discover a wall dominated by CDs without covers.  Each CD sits in a perfectly fitted clear plastic wallet, offering neither explanation nor reason for their naked forms. I stare closely at the specimens and discover them to be neither official release, nor pirated copies, but press-release promotional CDs, the likes of which are usually sent to music journalists or radio-stations.

I stare closely at a remastered release of The Police’s Reggatta Da Blanc, and notice that each CD is dotted with  stickers offering press-friendly promotional notes in Mandarin. We stop for a minute and gaze out to the River Tuo in wonder, contemplating how a small shop in the middle of nowhere in China, could have come into such a supply of promotional CDs. We come to a swift conclusion; that the store is either an ex-writer/ radio presenter/ editor’s personal collection for sale, or else a record-label company has liquidated its stock onto the market (which, according to copyright legislation, is technically illegal).

Spurred on by the apparent rarity of the promos on hand (after-all when was the last time you saw a CHINESE promotional copy of a record!), we get flicking. A few interesting titles raise their heads; a chill out CD featuring a Radiohead remix tempts my purse strings, as does a James Brown live album from the 1980s, and Supertramp’s Greatest Hits.

I scan my eyes over the hypnotically monotonous shelving, searching for anything unusual or that I have wanted for a while. I spy Roger Water’s The Wall Live In Berlin,  haphazardly jammed at the back of one of the stands near the cash register. Recorded way back in 1990, the live album features the likes of Van Morrison, Sinead O’Conner and, erm, Cyndi Lauper, dueting with the ex-Pink Floyd singer.

Picking up on the slight interest I show, the manageress slots the The Wall into the shop’s stereo and cranks it up to 11. The opening chords of In The Flesh ring out, and a biro on top of the old speakers near the till rattles as Water’s aged voice eventually  croons, “So you thought you might like to go to the show”,  the infamous first lines of that infamous album.  I listen to the track,  reminiscent of that spine-tingling night at Live 8, and, light of its 40Y (£3.64) price tag, can’t say no.

We pay up, and wander back to the balcony of our hotel, where we listen to the album, as the sun sets over the quaint river town.

Purchase:

Roger Waters – The Wall Live In Berlin – £3.64 [Tracklisting]

Total Purchases:

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 – Cowgirl (Remixes) 12″ – £1.18 [Tracklisting]

Underworld – Underneath The Radar 12″ – £8.91 [Tracklisting]

Total Spend: £36.68

In & Out Record Store

Mid-Levels,  Soho,  Central Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Ascending the Worlds Longest And Tallest Escalator, we spot a spot a window with a large poster taped to the glass, declaring, ‘We buy + sell LPs’.  Dashing down the steps at the first possible exit from the conveyer, we stumble into the shabby terraced building inwhich lies a stairwell to the shop.

On the fourth floor, we push open the door and set aside the bead curtain, and stumble across a solitary box shaped room, holding a desk and thousands of records, CDs and DVD stacked in various piles and spilling from cardboard boxes.

The small owner of the room is friendly, and has sprinkled the apartment with enough of his belongings to suggest that its not only his shop, but his home.  Incense hangs thickly in the air, and a contemporary jazz compilation blares from the speakers near the desk with the cash register.

“He probably just gets out a sleeping bag and sleeps in here” Maddi whispers to me, and I can’t help but agree.

We flick through the offerings of CDs, which consist mostly of humdrum rock releases from the likes of U2 and Muse, that leave me uninspired. However a small shelf, labelled ‘electronica’, offers a more interesting, eceltric mixture. We discover Saint Etienne’s Too Young To Die (which compiles the band’s first leg of music producing), recordings of Fatboy Slim’s Beach Boutiques from 2002 and 2003, and Aphex Twin’s double album Drukgs (which, coincenditally, is his last LP to date and an album I long for, but haven’t seen for a price I can justify).

However, it is the disaryed collection of vinyl that ticks the boxes; a big cardboard container of mixed genres priced at $15HK each (just over a £1) lies at the bottom of a dusty shelf.  One of crates seems to consist solely of US house and hip-hop, offering some old school records at a decent price. Elsewhere, stumbling across a remix EP of Underworld’s Cowgirl and Santos’ 2001 classic Camels, I decide to wake up the owner and splash out.

After-all, its not every day you can enter someone’s apartment, root through their record collection and come away with a few gems, without breaking the bank or the law.

Purchase:

Underworld – Cowgirl (Remixes) 12″ – £1.18 [Tracklisting]

Santos – Camels 12″ – £1.18 [Tracklisting]

Total Purchases:

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]

Santos – Camels 12″ – £1.18 [Tracklisting]

Samim: Flow – £1.98 [Tracklisting]

Underworld – Cowgirl (Remixes) 12″ – £1.18 [Tracklisting]

Underworld – Underneath The Radar 12″ – £8.91 [Tracklisting]

Total Spend: £33.04

Rendezvous Records

216-B, Kowloon, City Plaza, Hong Kong

In the corner of a strong-smelling food hall  in a mall which adjoins the  Star Ferry terminal, is a record shop that, according to its billboard, is ‘one of the best in Hong Kong’.

Unlike the hordes of knock-off CDs sold down side-streets and at night markets, Rendezvous Records prides itself on being the real deal – a second hand record store, with all the European trappings (and prices).

We enter the squat, ill-shaped shop to the strains of the Pet Shop Boy’s latest album blaring over the pa system, and make a beeline for the boxes of old vinyl piled up at the back of the store. Here, records are seemingly plopped down anywhere by the staff, and left for nonsensical browsing (no doubt a deep frustration for plenty a Chinese anorak – that is, if they exist).

I salivate in wanton desire as  I stumble across Bob Dylan’s seminal A Rare Batch Of Little White Wonder, which offers a bunch of the artisté’s live performance captured on wax. Elsewhere we find a bootleg of The Velvet Underground’s Unreleased Tracks, a battered 8” copy of Lou Reed’s Satellite Of Love, and a box full of assorted Blondie and Morrissey 12”.

The CD selection is fine, but nothing to be overtly excited about (the prices outclass the majority of the goods), although we do find a interesting concept CD. It is a two disc compilation, with tracks from Fatboy Slim, Portishead and the likes, on one disc, and then on the other the artists whose tracks are sampled with the tracks on the first disc, such as The James Gang and Isaac Hayes. However, it sounds like a far more interesting concept in theory than in execution I fear (after-all what did Discovered teach us, other than what we already knew – that Daft Punk are inspired by funky music).

Somewhere beneath the hordes of new-wave 12”, we find an original US promo copy of Underworld’s Underneath The Radar, the band’s, critically hated, first album. And although it wasn’t cheap (HK$115 – £8.91), and I’m not even sure its going to sound very good, I wouldn’t be the Underworld fan I am if I didn’t pick it up. I pay my money to the friendly and chirpy staff, and, swinging the bag as I walk, whistle a happy little ditty all the way back to my tiny, tiny, tiny hotel room.

Purchase:

Underworld – Underneath The Radar 12″ – £8.91 [Tracklisting]

Total Purchases:

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]

Samim: Flow – £1.98 [Tracklisting]

Underworld – Underneath The Radar 12″ – £8.91 [Tracklisting]

Total Spend: £30.68

D2,

Nevsky Prospekt, St. Petersberg, Russia

Not to be confused with the clothes shop chain, this uninspiring record shop along the bustling Nevsky Prospect street,  is a pirate-ship of stores, albeit with a treasure trove within.

Offering knock-off DVDs and video-games in one room, and CDs (most of which are pirated copies)  in another, the shop on the whole has little of interest to anyone with more than a passing interest in music.  We had entered the shop, browsed the racks with disdain and were turning to leave as I spied the store’s single redeming feature.

A bargain bin offering legit CDs at 30 roubles (59p) grabbed my attention, with it’s pile of Fabric mixes sitting near the top of the pile.  I sort through the lot and find Fabric 25 Mixed By Carl Craig (a classic techno/ house mix with tracks from Kerri Chandler, Scott Grooves and, err, The Pasta Boys), along with Fabric 26 mixed by Global Communication (aka Tom Middleton & Mark Pritchard).

Beneath a dirge of R&B compilations, I find another mix entitled ‘Elektrik 02′, a double disc outing from King Unique and Nubreed,  filled with goodies from Modeselektor, Claude Von Stroke, Steve Bug, Booka Shade, Felix Da Housecat, Thomas Schumacher, Milton Jackson… I could go on.  The shop, despite its lack of character, ambience, or selection, is on is way to becoming legendary.

Above: Nevsky Prospect

The last CD I discover, at the very bottom of the bin, is Moby’s 2008 album, Last Night – a homage to the disco and house tracks of the early ’90s, when the bald headed leftie was still making his name.  The album got lukewarm reviews on its release in 2008, but I think it was under-rated and, as a concept album, work wells.

As I take my armful of CDs to the counter and hand them to the grimacing clerk at the till (who is fashioning the kind of vacant expression made famous by American teenagers), I remind myself that sometimes the best purchases are in the worst shops.  And with that depressing manta, I lay down the cash and give the attentdant a genuine, unreturned, smile.

Purchase:

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]

Moby – Last Night – £0.59 [Tracklisting]

Total Purchases:

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]

Samim: Flow – £1.98 [Tracklisting]

Total Spend: £21.77

Øohomeka

Kolomenskaya Street, St. Petersberg, Russia

Irony, it seems to me, comes in two flavours: sharply bitter or sickly sweet. Thankfully, on the warm August afternoon we were spending wandering around St. Petersberg, it was the latter that was about to blossom mid-sentence.

Verbally bemoaning that the city lacked any decent record shops, Maddi interrupts me and points to the shop window, five feet from my face, with a pile of vinyl records stacked behind it.

The smell of the polished floor floods my nose as we enter, complimented by two sofas in the centre of the low room. However, the cream leather settees rather than for sitting, offer an impromptu stand for strewn vinyl and CDs, picked up by wandering hands and not returned to their rightful places, offering a scatterbrain-styled opportunity to discover Van Morrison or scathe through endless Phil Collins 12”s.

Centre stage, between the two sofas, is a top of the range vinyl deck, complete with the obligatory bald-headed bearded guy, twirling with knobs, reading sleeves and playing prog-rock as loud as the two small amps will allow. We pass him and he grins at us, showing us the cover of what he is playing, it’s a Slade album. We nod dutifully, but don’t mean it.

The vinyl collection, which spans three walls and countless over-flowing boxes dotted around the floor, is almost unblemished, spanning every genre, sub-genre and specialist-interest known to man. Plus, with each record, framed in a clear plastic bag, comes a slip of paper giving the info on the wax’s life – where it was pressed, which year it was produced, it’s country of origin etc…

Refreshingly, compact discs, aren’t completely shunned in favor of vinyl, and a sizeable collection spans the shops back wall. EPs and albums that I haven’t seen on CD anywhere else, from rarely-seen albums from Plastikman (Richie Hawtin), Daedelus, and Modeslektort to legendary releases such Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works (not a re-release either, as it’s £20 price tag confirms). It’s as near to spotless as possible, and seems to understand that the CD should be seen as a different media to, rather than a slayer of, vinyl.

It quickly becomes apparent that this is the type of record shop which credits clientele and good music above profit margins, where the staff smile at you as you linger over B-sides, instead of hurrying you to a decision. Here, making money lies secondary to the discovery of new music or new fans of old music.

As I bend down to the vinyl box entitled ‘rarities’ and began to flick, the shop manager rushes over bringing me a stool, to save my knees. I turn and thank him, wondering if I have made it to the record store equivalent of nirvana.

Purchase:

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Total Purchases:

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

Le Le – Breakfast 12″ – £8.24 [Tracklisting]

Samim: Flow – £1.98 [Tracklisting]

Total Spend: £19.43

]]> http://theworldspins.wordpress.com/2009/10/26/record-store-11-st-petersberg-russia/feed/ 0 Pete Adkins P1010414 P1010415 aphex-twin-85-92-1