I’m going to London and Paris in a week, and I’m looking for cool record stores to hit while I’m in town. (I’m also looking for Drum and Bass and Hip Hop Clubs.)
I just found what seems to be a cool website with information on London recordstores, but I have no way of knowing if the information is current or not.
Thanks in advance for any advice you can give me!
I’m including the list I’m currently working from below. As the list improves, I will update it here (note the working date at the top).
Updated 3/19/04
Here is the full text of the entire page:
http://music.hyperreal.org/london/
central london rave shops – record stores
bottom of page | other London shops | flyer collectors | Hyperreal
BANGING TUNES – 15A Little Portland Street, London W1W 8BW
email: info@kinetec.com
tel: +44 (0)20 7323 5303
fax: +44 (0)20 7323 5909
Psych, Drum & Bass, Tech-House, US Techno, Gabba, Hardcore
BLACK MARKET – 25 D’Arblay Street, London W1V 3FH
email: mailo@blackmarket.co.uk
tel: +44 (0)20 7437 0478
fax: +44 (0)20 7494 1303
swing, rap, hip-hop, house, garage, jungle
CITY SOUNDS – 5 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS
tel: +44 (0)20 7405 5454
fax: +44 (0)20 7242 1863
house, garage [long established, new location]
CYBERDOG – 9 Earlham St, London WC2
email: sniff@cyberdogworld.demon.co.uk
tel: +44 (0)20 7836 7855
trance-techno [CDs only, in atmospheric clothes shop]
DEAL REAL – 6a Noel St, Soho, London W1V 3RB
tel: +44 (0)20 7734 8689
fax: +44 (0)20 7734 8979
hip-hop, soul, jazz, r&b, swing
EUKATECH – 49 Endell Street, London WC2
tel/fax: +44 (0)20 7240 8060
house, techno, trance, drum + bass
FLYING RECORDS – 94 Dean Street, London W1V 5RB
tel: +44 (0)20 7734 0172
fax: +44 (0)20 7287 0766
house, garage [above Major Flava’s]
HAND SPUN – 31 D’Arblay Street, London W1V 3FG
tel: +44 (0)20 7734 7845
hip-hop
KOKON TO-ZAI [= “old-new-east-west”] – 57 Greek Street, London W1V 5LR
tel/fax: +44 (0)20 7434 1316
house, techno, groove, euro-trance [in intriguing shop]
KOOBLA – 17 Berwick Street, London W1F 0PT
email: tim@kooblarecords.com
www: http://www.kooblarecords.com
tel: +44 (0)20 7287 9909
fax: +44 (0)20 7287 9919
house, soul, techno, funk, electro, electronica
MAD RECORDS – 2 Silver Place, London W1F 0JP
email: info@madrecords.net
www: http://www.madrecords.net
tel: +44 (0)20 7439 0707
hard house, hard trance & nrg, progressive, trance, tech house, techno
MAJOR FLAVA’S – 94 Dean Street, London W1V 5RB
tel: +44 (0)20 7434 1406
fax: +44 (0)20 7287 0766
r’n’b, rap [downstairs from Flying Records]
MR BONGO – 44 Poland Street, London W1V 3DA
email: webmaster@mrbongo.com
www: http://www.mrbongo.com/
tel: +44 (0)20 7287 1821
fax: +44 (0)20 7439 1828
hip-hop, drum and bass, disco, techno, breaks, funk, jazz etc
PLASTIC FANTASTIC – 35 Drury Lane, London WC2B 5RH
email: shop@plasticfantastic.co.uk
www: http://www.plasticfantastic.co.uk
tel: +44 (0)20 7240 8055
fax: +44 (0)20 7240 7628
pumpin’ house, progressive house, trance
RELEASE THE GROOVE – 20 Denman Street, London W1V 7RJ
email: release@music8.freeserve.co.uk
www: http://www.releasethegroove.co.uk/
tel: +44 (0)20 7734 7712
fax: +44 (0)20 7734 7713
jazz, r&b, drum&bass, house, London underground, garage
SILVERBACK – 40 Bloomsbury Way, London WC1A 2SA
email: info@silverbackrecords.co.uk
www: http://www.silverbackrecords.co.uk
tel: +44 (0)20 7404 9456
house, progressive, techno, breaks, drum n’ bass, r&b
SOUNDS OF THE UNIVERSE – 7 Broadwick Street, London W1F 0DA
tel/fax: +44 (0)20 7494 2004
soul, funk, jazz, drum + bass, hip-hop
TRAX – 55 Greek Street, London W1V 5LR
tel: +44 (0)20 7734 0795
fax: +44 (0)20 8551 8525
euro dance specialists
UPTOWN – 3 D’Arblay Street, London W1V 3FD
tel: +44 (0)20 7434 3639
tel: +44 (0)20 7434 3650 (nail order)
fax: +44 (0)20 7434 3649
r’n’b, rap, garage, underground, house [promo specialist]
VINYL JUNKIES – 9 Berwick Street, London W1V 3RG
tel: +44 (0)20 7439 2775
fax: +44 (0)20 7287 2608
house, garage, techno, down tempo, miscellaneous beats [+ sitting area]
WYLD PYTCH (RECORD SPECIALISTS) – 51 Lexington Street, London W1R 4HL
tel: +44 (0)20 7434 3472
fax: +44 (0)20 7287 1403
hip hop, r&b, funk, soul, garage
XSF RECORDS – 39 Berwick Street, London W1V 3RE
email: records@xsfrecords.com
tel: +44 (0)20 7287 2496
Deep, Funky, Prog/Tribal House, Techno, Trance, Hard House, Breaks
u can check how to find them at UK Street Map or Multimap top of page | bottom of page | flyer collectors
other London rave shops & outlets
24 Carat, Caledonian Rd tel: +44 (0)20 7607 3334
Access All Areas, Camden NW1 tel: +44 (0) 20 7267 8320
Bassline Records, Kilburn tel: +44 (0)20 7372 5330
Body Music, Tottenham tel: +44 (0)20 8802 0147
Criminal Records, Walthamstowe tel: +44 (0)20 85033 2165
Deep Freeze, Camden tel: +44 (0)20 7424 0574
Hummit Records, 309 Kings Rd, Chelsea SW3 tel: +44 (0)20 7823 3584
Hype Records, Whetstone N20 tel: +44 (0)20 8445 5222
Paradox, 321 Upper Street, Islington N1 tel: +44 (0)20 7226 8530
Psychedelic Dream Temple, Camden NW1 tel: +44 (0)20 7267 8528
Pure Groove, 679 Holloway Rd, Archway N19 tel: (0)20 7281 4877
Record Village, 256 Hoe St, Walthamstowe E17 tel: (0)20 8520 7331
Remix, 247 Evershot St, Camden NW1 tel: (0)20 7387 2208
Rhythm Division, 391 Roman Rd, Bethnal Green E3 tel: +44 (0)20 8981 2203
R.O.A.R. Records, Elephane & Castle tel: (0)20 7708 3001
Rugged Records, Deptford tel: (0)20 8692 3311
Scream Records – 12 Ashfield Parade, Southgate N14 tel: +44 (0)20 8886 2317
Section 5, 121 Kings Rd, Chelsea SW3 tel: (0)20 7351 6853
Shed Records, 32 Western Hill, Crystal Palace SE19 tel: (0)20 8761 5080
Sonic House Records, 247 Evershot St, Camden NW1 tel: (0)20 7387 6440
Spin City Records, 374 Edgeware Rd, Paddington W2 tel: (0)20 7258 0300
The Mess, 225 St Johns Hill, Battersea SW11 tel: (0)20 7207 1276
The Vibe, 91-95 Brick Lane, Bethnal Green E1 tel: (0)20 7247 3479
Total Music, 2A Ellsworth St, Bethnal Green E2 tel: (0)20 7473 3000
Trakheadz, 117 Kentish Town Road, Camden tel: +44 (0)20 7428 1845
Trix Trax, Battersea tel: (0)20 7223 1995
Ultimate Dance Music – 30 Southbury Rd, Enfield EN1 1SA tel: 020 8366 5422
Vinyl Mania, 214 Northfield Ave, Ealing W13 tel: (0)20 7566 5244
Wired For Sound, Hackney tel: (0)20 8985 7531
and some other UK outlets
Hard To Find Records – Lonsdale House, 52 Blucher St, Birmingham B1 1QU
Mixa-Ma-Tosis – 14 The Triangle, Bournemouth BH2 5RY tel: 01202 319770
Nine Bar Records – 45 Upper High St, Epsom KT17 4RA tel: 01372 729861
Phat Trax – 2 Lower Road, Loughton, Essex IG10 2RS tel: 0208 508 1431
Sound Zone – 25 East Walk, Basildon, Essex SS14 1HA
Streetwise Music – 76 King Street, Cambridge CB1 1LP tel/fax 01223 300496
Vinyl Express – 210a High Street, Bangor, Gwynedd LL15 1NY tel: 01248 354535
Vinyl Underground – 80 Abington St, Northampton NN1 2BB tel: 01604 634433
email to the folks at hyperreal.org, they travel quite a bit and are more into a variety of music than their website suggests.
paris:
it’s been a few years for me, but last time i went, i used the “let’s go” paris guide to find some good record shops (hip hop, jazz etc)…if you don’t have it, i’d recommend looking at it.
It may be w/o saying, but you must check out Fabric friday, The Mass friday, and Bar Rumba Thursday for banging dnb.
I see a few stores from Berwick Street appear on your London list. In the past I’ve had very good luck shopping for music on Berwick – it’s very central and has quite a few record stores in a 2-3 block stretch. In fact I’m going back there on Tuesday.
Hello
For paris there are that I know no resident places for hiphop maybe for drum’n Bass yes [Maybe in the Rex Club, The Queen, Folies’ Pigalles]. Parties are going on in different places of the capital and Hiphop places are not well advertized on main stream web sites or radios. Radio like 106.3 Frequence Paris Pluriel migth give a good agenda for Hiphop. For drum’n bass nova (novaplanet.com see agenda [Click on “SORTIR” and then “Bon Plans”]) and FG (http://www.radiofg.com/sommaire.html and go to LES PLANS CAPITAUX)
Also try these sites:
http://www.paris-premiere.fr/page.php?P=data/sortez/
http://www.lemonsound.com/ and go to the agenda
Buy every Wednesday “Le Monde” and check out their excellent supplement Aden.
Zurban, Novaplanet (own by radio nova) and TekniArt are excellent magazaines with everything available in the capital.
Finally I’ve noticed that the FREE newspapers in the metro such as METRO and 20 minutes have very good agenda for the evening!
If you understand french then listen to radio nova. From 17h00, and then on every hour sharp they will give you the “Bon Plans”…
I guess for hiphop you could do the same. But real hiphop event have much less friendly growd than dum’n bass. Ohhh now I rememeber of 2 residents places for hiphop! One that was in Les Halles area but of course I lost the name and the other one was every Wednesday night at a famous club “Les bains douches”.
Last stuff. I stumbled across a very cool senegaleses bar/expo places last week called the Jokko. I passed by and entered and they had a concert for a school in senegal! Very nice. See http://www.jokko.net and it is located in a beautiful area “Le Marais”.
Enjoy
Yvan
Hi Lisa, Mr Bongo’s on Poland Street has a lot of great jazz/latin and hip hop records. The list you have seems pretty accurate, but best thing to do is to walk around Soho and discover on your own.
Hey Lisa,
If you are into D&B records, check out:
http://www.chemical-records.co.uk
Wicked collection of stuff, however about a 3 hour drive out of London. Therefore, I would recommend you order online and get it shipped to your location in London.
Cheers
Adrian
Hey Lisa, could you please please pretty please, post the interview with Richard Clarke on 60 Minutes. Heard lots about the interview, here in Australia, however no means to get it. Otherwise, do you know where I can download the vid from off the net?
Cheers
Adrian
London:
* Rough trade – Neal’s Yard, Covent Garden (look for slam city skates and go downstairs)
* Select-a-disc and Sister Ray on berwick street, soho
* Mr Bongo on poland street, soho
Honest Jon’s on Portobello Road, London W11 near where the Westway crosses over (consult your Clash albums). They make up tapes of long deleted stuff if you ask nicely. Plus one of the owners is a bit of an authority on Jamaican music, Studio One and the like.
Sorry to say this but stick with clubs and forget buying music. The days of tracks that you could only get in Europe are long gone. I remember before the Euro I use to pick up CDs in Germany due to low prices and a favorable exchange rate that got me CDs for an appropriate $10-$12US but ever since the Euro conversion they match us in price if not more. UK? Forget it. I’ve only been once but 20 pounds for a CD I could get at any decent store in the US? Give me a fucking break. Don’t you live in San Francisco anyway? Buy music at Amoeba, there is no place better on this earth to buy music. Spend your money on clubs/drinks in London and Absinth in Paris. The shit in the UK is not Absinth; avoid Hills, it’s swill.