Statements

Mats Statement

HIT THE WALL!

What is the first thing you check entering a record shop you have never been to before?  This is a valid question and an extremely important decision to make in order to find the real goodies and rarities. The real deal. We asked some fellow discaholics how they do it. How they approach it all. What is the first thing they go for, entering the shop:

“Free/ avant garde Jazz”      Björn Thorstensson, discaholic and retired dentist

“I go to the walls and the counter first”  Bruno Johnson, Okka Disk

“Avant Garde / experimental “ Crys Cole, sound artist

“New Arrivals (Classic Rock)” Masami Akita, noise pioneer

“New arrivals. And I look at what’s stuck on the walls. There you sense what kind of stuff they hold. If it’s a huge store, they hold everything of course..”

Reine Fiske, guitarist 

“Rare and/or collectibles” Rune Kristoffersen, record label wizard

“Wow, that’s a tough question… usually I get either attacked immediately by vertiguous obsession or confusion, depending on where I am and the size of the shop. I would say a safe bet is that I’m a sucker for tables full of «new releases» and «reissues» or possibly the recent «used» LPs from the week, etc.”

Stephen O´Malley, guitarist

– I’m enough of an omnivore and certainly enough of a disorganised psychopath not to discriminate. I am intrigued, though, by how some guys arrange their stuff. There is a shop in Glasgow that goes to extraordinary lengths to subdivide genres in both LP and CD. I think he spends his days like a medieval scholastic reassessing obscure music and moving it from one place in the empyrean to another. He does, however, have one bin marked ’Wire music’, by which he means the magazine, rather than the band. I originally thought this must be music featured in The Wire, but it turns out simply to be music he can’t describe in any other way. Spoken word stuff probably gets my attention first, but that can be disappointing. When you’ve found one John Cooper Clarke record, you’ve found every John Cooper Clarke record, as the medieval scholastics used to say.

Brian Morton, author

“I would only enter any record shop if there was the slightest hope that they might have some 78s for sale.  If it turns out that they do, the 78s are usually in the back somewhere, in boxes or on shelves in no particular order or categories.  One has to just start in, look at every label.  This can go fast if you’ve had a lot of experience at it.  First, I just skim over almost all labels from the 1940s and ‘50s.  Most of what you find in random stacks of 78s is bad pop music of the ‘40s and ‘50s, and classical music.  The good stuff is harder to find.  Not only because other collectors have been there before you, but also the only type of music I and many other collectors are after was originally pressed in smaller numbers and came out in a low period for the recording industry, the 1925-’35 period.  A vexatious situation for the obsessed collector, this rarity business, but also part of the magic aura which surrounds these old discs.  I know many collectors who are so dazzled by the rarity thing that the music sounds better to them if the record is rare.  I’ve seen it often.  Absurd, but such is the human condition.

Nowadays, there are really no more record shops in which the proprietor has an extensive stock of old 78s, categorized by type of music and artists.  That’s pretty much over.  They sell them on eBay instead.  Unfortunately, I don’t do eBay, as I am computer illiterate, or maybe fortunately.  One could spend all of one’s spare time and money searching for and buying 78s on eBay.  I know some guys who do just that”         R. Crumb

“The wall. Always hit the wall first. That will give you a good idea about the quality of the store and just how much rare stuff you will be able to find.”

Dennis Lyxzén, Refused, INVSN

“I always head for the Noise/Avant/Weird type of bin first. Past that, I go to the Alternative, then the Metal, World and Jazz sections. I never look in the Country Western or Rap bins”

Henry Rollins

“I check the display wall and hit the Avant/ Experimental section”

Oren Ambarchi, guitarist and drummer

“The wall.” Harald Hult, legend

HIT THE WALL!

 

Sofias statment

As a teenager I was eager to hear as much live music as possible, so I frequently visited all thinkable venues from the opera house to underground clubs. At that time the city I lived in, Stockholm, was a vibrant city with man venues for live music. Very different from today. The venue that has had the most impact on me is very clear.

Glenn Miller Café was a small venue in the heart of Stockholm. I grew up at that place. They had all kinds of jazz, from traditional to free form. The quality of the music was extremely good even though it was a door gig. Everyone who passed through the Nordic hemisphere played there. What made the venue so special was the atmosphere. Magic vibes and great food. Because the venue was so small you could sit as close as you wanted to the musicians, sometimes you had no choice but to sit 20 cm in front of the trumpet plaver or almost inside the drums. To be able to literally touch the music and get so close was indescribably important for me. It was also a place where many musicians came to hang out. Because of the informal character and the small From grass roots venues to institutional clubs, size of the venue it was impossible to avoid speaking with people The performing musicians and audience inevitably interacted with each other. It was a place very easy to get to know musicians at and as a young person that was invaluable.

Due to a racist attack towards me that happened there a couple of years ago I struggle to separate my memories from before that incident with what I feel about the venue today. I have tried my best to set that aside and give the venue the recognition it deserves even though it’s not possible for me to visit it again.

I would also like to mention Bimhuis in Amsterdam. Compared to Glenn Miller Café it is a diamond palace and I’m sure many of you know this beautiful venue. I was invited by guitarist Corrie Van Binsbergen to play there with my first band, Paavo. That was huge for us, we were all in our early twenties and it was the first time we played in continental Europe. I had not seen anything like it before, the sound was amazing, and the room was perfectly crafted for the music it presented. The high-level of the technician and sound engineer was very impressive. I had never been at professional venue like that before. In Stockholm everything was very DIV, we made our own sound (often there was no sound engineer), we organized the chairs for audience etc. To be able to have access to a backstage with toilette and even showers was mind blowing.

More than 10 years later the Bimhuis director took initiative to revive the concept “October Meeting” that he initiated back in the old days. He invited musicians from all over Europe, maybe 20 people in total. We could work there for one week. Rehears and play in different constellations resulting in a concert each day. Many musicians that I work with today I met there. For ex. Alexander Hawkins, Petter Eldh and Mette Rasmussen. Many bands were created, and new connections were made.