TURNAROUND: A VINYL RECORDS DOCUMENTARY

PET SOUNDS — STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN

Pet Sounds is, simply, Stockholm's record shopping top dog. Located bang in the heart of hip SoFo (A pun on Soho, an acronym of "South of Folkungagatan") Pet Sounds more or less sets the bar by which Stockholm's other independent record shops are measured. That's fair enough too, as the shop has been solidly peddling good music for well over 25 years now. A fine, diverse place to spend an afternoon sifting through new releases and a very solid selection of 2nd hand pop and rock, disco, funk, country, blues (the usuals, then) and a healthy dose of "World Music" seperated (and rightly so) into different countries of origin. (I don't like the term "World Music" at all, but you know exactly what I mean when I use it). The shop also pays special attention to Swedish music in both it's new releases and 2nd hand selection (although it's not uncommon for record shops in Sweden to have healthily stocked Swedish sections). If you really fancy enraging your bank manager, the front counter is home to a great crate of second hand 7"s, where theres some especially tasty Swedish punk gems.

If, like me, you're fond of a pale ale, then the Pet Sounds bar across the street is worth a visit, too. I also heard somewhere that Mr. Quentin Tarantino marked Pet Sounds as his favourite record shop. There you have it. Worth a visit on that recommendation alone.

Image from Flickr, here

WHERE: Skånegatan 53, Stockholm
WHEN: Mon-Fri 11.00—18.00 / Sat 11.00—17.00 / Sun Closed
WHAT: A good mix of everything you'd expect from an independent record shop that is as established as this. Also the usual books, magazines and DVDs too.
WEBSITE: http://www.petsounds.se/

KRISTINA RECORDS / LONDON—ENGLAND

This might just be my favourite record shop in London. Kristina Records does everything I want a record shop to do, pretty much perfectly: It's small, but with a broad selection, it's concise without sacrificing wild cards and weird gems and every time you go in you're seduced into spending every penny you have on you. If you're especially high on spending your hard-earned moolah, there's a wall of rare 7"s, casettes of old classics, zines and all the other usual business you'd expect from an establishment as discerning as this one.

A lot of 2nd hand vinyl places have floors that are too big, and many (many) feel the need to fill the space with bins full of dross, heavily used drum and bass 12"s and pop records that aren't quite old enough to count as retro yet. Kristina uses it's size to its advantage and stocks almost exclusively brilliant wax from all kinds of diverse, leftfield and underground genres. From blues to black metal, dub to disco, almost everything is worth shelling out for and I would defy any record collecting nerd like myself to leave this shop without a stack of hard to find gems or weird wild cards under their arm and a cheshire-cat of a grin on their face.

What's more, Kristina Records is fairly priced. Valuable records have their price tags, of course, but for every £30 The Slits LP you can pick up some interesting looking old compilation from Africa for something like £7. Recently I've seen a lot of copies of the absolute-class "Girls in The Garage" and "Las Vegas Grind" compilation series at really good prices.



The shop is located at the top end of East London's hyper-hip Dalston. Born and bred London purists (such as myself) will actually tell you that its in Stoke Newington but still, the closest tube station is indeed Dalston Kingsland on the London Overground line.

WHERE: 44 Stoke Newington rd, London, N16 7XJ
WHEN: Mon-Fri 12.00—20.00 / Sat-Sun 11.00—20.00
WHAT: Off the top of my head... African, Latin, Indian, Blues, Jazz, Soundtracks, Rockabilly, 50s pop, 60s pop, 80s pop, 70s rock, garage, psychedelia, punk & hardcore, heavy metal, new wave, no wave, indie & alternative, dub & reggea, disco, techno, house...there's definitely more I've missed...
WEBSITE: kristinarecords.com (very good online shop, too!)

DIGGING FOR RECORDS IN GHANA

I thought i'd just quickly point you in the direction of an absolutely fascinating post on the brilliant Dust & Grooves. Frank Gossner of Voodoo Funk fame is an African music obsessive and here we get a serious look into one of his serious digging trips in Ghana. This isn't a holiday, this is serious gold nugget speculation; including vetting potential sellers and travelling to remote towns in the slim hope of finding something special. I won't ramble on, just have a look for yourself and get inspired to dig deep for some real gems: Dust & Grooves Digging in Ghana with Frank Gossner