The All New Totally Nude and Rude Rat Records Weekly Update

Hello again delicious electric bretheren, and welcome to the Rat Records Weekly Update from your Phono Staged Pal, The Inner Sleeve!

You might have seen that the ‘Opening Ceremony’ of the Ughlympics – a ritual destruction of money that makes off the hook freebasing sound like a bargain lifestyle choice, ‘directed’ by the overrated slinger of faux grit and patronising cultural tourism Danny Arsey Boil is to be called Isle of Wonder. So glad that the load of kids streaming coloured bog roll about the place have a theme. But you can fight back against this Bling Babylon through exploring an altogether more interesting Island.

Long time readers will recall an incident toward the end of last year where our Magical Gaul, Philippe, was offered a load of mysterious, mint, classic Island discs from a confused and indifferent passing urchin, who had been charged with clearing out a disused lockup. Other than the obvious Marley, it was all Greek to him. Philippe thought otherwise. You’ve caught a glimpse and had a rummage of some of it, but he knows that not even the most vicious black gold miners and Vinyl Vultures can make it down every time there is a fresh kill in the New In racks. So like a loving bartender whose got a special bottle, he holds a super secret stash back for special occasions. And when he is feeling extra generous.

Our Tartan Terror, Tom, has been too busy keeping himself warm in the Scottish wilds to keep Philippe away from his Pricing Down instincts. And this week he has gone hog wild.

He’s gone and done a full Price Down, making your favourite record shop more full of bargains than a shipwrecked galleon. When asked how and why he decided to bring out choice duplicates of Island albums that you might have missed the first time round, but also some great titles that have not yet seen the sacred Saturday Morning light of Camberwell. All he will tell us is that it is “Cheap but super nice” and as little as £2 to £5. That’s better value than theft, or an inevitably disappointing packet cheese sandwich.

What is there above and beyond the Island wonders? A load of classic reggae. And we mean some real gems you’ve not seen yet – LPs, 12” and a Treasure chest full of 7”s. We also have a heaping helping of cheap Soul and Funk, not to mention a buffet of beats – top Drum and Bass and plenty of other Electronic Dance floor Depth Charges.

So get on your best warm clobber, and come on down to Rat this Saturday, or any day! See you in the racks, and keep it groovy until we meet again!

How (traditional Sioux greeting). And thanks for joining us again for an all new, very Nude and crucially controversial Rat Records Weekly Update with your tonal tour guide, The Inner Sleeve.

This week has been a warmer one for Rat, as with a bit more sunlight, a few more hipsters wander in to buy or sell black and silver gold in your favourite record shop, like Killer Bees swarming into a sweet factory. And like the bees flying around the farms and gardens of the world, it’s all about cross pollination. That’s what makes a healthy ecosystem.

The great Gothgaragepunkfather of them all, Iggy Pop, aka Detroit born Hawaiian Guitar virtuoso Mr. James Newell Osterberg, Jr., has just been announced as the Official Ambassador for Record Store Day, 2012.  Like everything this Deity spits, you really need to read it for yourself, but here is the skinny:

“”A person should have a personality. You won’t get one dicking around on a computer. It helps to go somewhere where there are other persons. Persons who are interested in something you are. That’s how a record store or any shop that’s got some life to it should work…I got my name, my musical education and my personality all from working at a record store during my tender years…Personally I feel best in a store that, while staying small and socially relaxed, still keeps a complete variety of music types and non musical recordings on offer…When the record and record store businesses began to die at the turn of the new century, they deserved it because they got too big too boring and too plastic…As Record Store Day Ambassador for 2012 I feel like a representative from some exotic jungle full of life and death and sex and anger, called upon to wear a leopard skin and translate joy to the world of the dead.”

Sounds a lot like Rat is and has always been.  While all the high street product shifters got rinsed by Amazon, dodgy downloading, iTunes and general evolution, we’ve been fighting your corner against the Pop Zombies. Iggy’s nightmare world of the dead.

The world of the dead is the mainstream of downloads and Tesco and Crapital Radio. The real thing is as cool and out of this Big Bling Stadium Advert Background Noise Ringtone aesthetic’s imagination as an Arctic Cruise is to an educationally challenged Panamanian Forest Toad.

Prove it, you say? Well this Saturday you’ll see our New In racks are haunted by the ghost of Mr. Bongo.  Comps chock full of sixties funk and soul, smooth grooves and chilled breaks, B boy street funk, jazz labels such as Impulse, Blue Note and Verve revisited by the cream of broken beats. Gilles Peterson, Jazzanova, Russ Jones, Bob Jones, Masters at Work, King Britt etc! LP’s Near Mint. Also seminal albums from Ninja Tune : Vadim, Spinna, Food, Hextatic, Kid Koala, Spank rock etc. We have classic rock by the likes of Suicide, Slint, Bowie, Zappa, Floyd, Slits. The likes of Keb Darge and Bob Jones comps and loads of mint two quid 12” magic from early 90′s broken beats and hip-trip hoppers. Plus some solid 60′s soul, peppered with classic rock and awesome, dub-reggae-ska 7”s, 12”s, and LPs of the highest order.

So get on your best zombie fighting clobber, and see you on Saturday! Until next time, keep it fresh…

Hello there, transistor transported friends and thanks for joining us for the penultimate Rat Records Weekly Update of the most morbid month ever invented.

The schizoid skies and quiet days at the shop have been livened up by a surprise visit from the Scottish Spiderman that is our Dread Leader, Tom. Why Spiderman? Because you may have seen him hanging close to the ceiling (with the help of a ladder) sorting out the shopfront, or else witnesses him catching black plastic prey guided by a strange sonic sixth sense.

This week the web has caught an amazing, alarming mix of genres. In the uncool parts of the past, or even in another shop, such a bizarre mixed buffet would lead to confusion, if not a knife fight.

Why? Because for the last three decades Babylon has been trying to divide, rule, tickle, and soak musical audiences by sticking them in easy to understand categories. There are a lot of advantages to this.

If you had a commercial radio station playing the mix of magic you can find in the collection of may of our customers, advertisers would be confused. Boogie AND Blues? Jungle PLUS Jazz and a little Krautrock chaser? Rock AND Reggae, from more than one DECADE?! They would have no idea what to try to sell alongside it. Saga holidays and spray paint? Red Stripe and sauerkraut and sharp leather shoes?

So led by US radio giant Clear Channel (which now owns billboards too), the commercial side of it gave everyone a label and kept everyone apart. Easy to market, easy to sell, easy to understand. Whether you are talking about a radio station, a club night, an artist or an album. No surprises, no challenges. Which made tastes get simpler and music get stupider, at least in the foamy mainstream.

Rat stands with you against all this like a white hot Bass blade cutting through a layer of plastic and sugar.

Want more proof? In this Saturday’s New In rack you will find:

Rock – Tom Waits, Crass, Hendrix, Beatles, John Lee Hooker, Zep, Woodstock OST, Patti Smith, Joy Division

Reggae – Culture, Jah Lloyd, assorted Roots 7"s

Soul/Funk – Ramsey Lewis, Bill Withers, Meters, Billy Preston's “peado album”, Sly Stone, Isaac Hayes

Dance: Lots of Drum and Bass 12"s, late 90s on Bronx, Virus, Good Looking, Audio Couture

Punk 7"s with pic sleeves; Jam, Clash, Pistols, Ruts etc.

All cool, all together and all ready for hip new homes! So come on down and strike a blow against the Candy Floss Earworm Babylon. Your soul will thank you. Until next time, stay safe, stay groovy, stay dancing…!

Welcome again, great and groovy people to the Rat Records Weekly Update from your controversial going commando conjurer The Inner Sleeve!

This week has been a lucky one for Rat. Philippe sniffed out a reggae buy of such quality that even after lashings of pastries and pastis we cannot get much out about it from him except single words like “exciting”, “rare” and “unexpected”.

We’ve also got in a clutch of electronic danceability from the Golden Era. As in the 90s. Especially Electro and Techno.

This was the time when all kind of styles could cut through and get at least some radio air play (remember the Essential Mix?) and club notice. And a lot of seminal records were made. You might even see a review of a Plastikman LP in The Guardian.

Thing is, a Golden Age cuts both ways. Too much, too big, too soon. And so a Golden Age can soon become a Golden Shower filled with foamy chancers, rubbish remixes and a total lack of quality control..

There is a great old saying in American Showbiz “Dance with them that brung you”. Roughly translated, it means that you need to stay in some way true to your friends and your audience. Not only is it polite, it is good business sense.

Electro and Techno both have the same fundamental problem that all electronic dance music does. In most countries anything that makes you move which is not well basic and poppy is a real minority taste. Like sushi.

Crossing over, going mainstream, remixing Kylie – all these are not only something that real heads will find smelling of sell out, they actually alienate artists from their core audiences, who do not come back.

Look at the record. William Orbit goes from Torch Song credibility to hanging with Madonna (uh oh) to making product for All Saints (better bathe in bleach mate) to polishing the MOR Montezuma’s Revenge that is Katie Melua and infecting the world with Girls Aloud solo Tesco Exclusive turdbombs.

He not only became, but looks to his old fans as less cool than a Karaoke night at a concrete salesman's conference. Tiga went from DJ Kicks to DJ Cash-in to a washed up, strung out load of cartoony hair. Miss Kittin devolved from an ironic Valium powered sexbot to an over inked wedding disco deejay crossed with Betty Boo.

Techno will always be healthier than Electro. Electro in the hands of the simple is limited by its 4 on the floor, DMX drums, DX7 keys, back to the 80s, neon ironic forms. There is and was some great stuff, but its a real challenge.

Electro had its moment but it it peaked, sucked and passed. Kind of like Disco, but faster and in miniature. Just as after Cher and the Bee Gees leave the building in search of the next fad, Unlimited Touch and Jocelyn Brown sneak into the basement. As Philippe says:

“There is a nice niche that exists in purist electro defended by the likes of Radioactive Man and Weatherall, and plenty of labels still doing it such as Cultivated Electronics and Combat Recordings.

It is a healthy scene that simply had a huge moment in the mid nineties and has been more than happy to find it's underground space back.”

Indeed.You have to be a DON to do credible electro. Its like the ultimate test. Like being a top chef with limited ingredients.

Techno is healthier because the word means nothing. Its like Jazz. Its everything and nothing like Plastikman, Model 500, Rhythm and Sound, Carl Craig and some Belgian geezer no-one has heard of with a bunch of reversed, pitched down voicemail greetings and a pirated copy of Fruity Loops. The same is almost true of House.

But this Saturday, you be the Judge. Not in great quantities either, but all priced ridiculously low. We have:

Electro from Dynarec, Sir Real, a few 12@s on Touchin' Bass , The other people's place

Techno from Claude Young, Dan Curtin, Luciano and, as always, much much more!

Like: cool classic rock (stones, velvet, fab four) and some more of the island remaining lower end, loads of reggae and dub and dancehall and lovers rock twelves and LPs

Do come and see for yourself. And always remember, whatever your beat, Rat is the record shop full of more suprises and bargains than a Martian Musical TK Maxx! You never know what you’ll find, or could have missed. Until next time…!

Welcome again my electric friends to the wacky word stew that is the All New All Nude Rat Records Weekly Update from the Inner Sleeve.

This week we have a special shout out to about 500 odd new friends. You may be a bit confused about where you have ended up, as you signed up to be friends of a Mr. Rat Records London.

That was not totally proper practice as he was a bunch of people and groovy vibes rather than a person per se. So now we’ve got a new, improved, evolving Page for all our friends, customers, victims, et cetera.

Expect fun, controversy, exclusive heads ups on what we’re doing, buying, listening to and have fresh in stock. So the inside track combined with an electronic clubhouse for all that is musical, cool, fresh and magic.

This week has been more manic at Rat than a shaken bag of bees. Our Dread Tartan Lord, Tom, has been down from the Snowy Scottish Wilds to risk his life, limbs and sanity to both mine black gold and find new soldiers for the fight against the autotune Babylon.

Sometimes, though, even Tom’s magic cannot get the deal for us all. Sources report he spent Wednesday evening on his knees in Bromley. Word had reached him of a collection of the finest, fuzziest most eclectic Jazz and Funk rarities he’s seen all year: Cold Blood, first Mtume LP, Jon Lucien, Pleasure, Mandrill, Spanky Wilson, Johnny Hammond, Doug and Jean Carne, a Ruth Copeland LP even his well tuned eyes has never seen before. And P Funk holds a special place in his Pantheon. Most titles we’ve never had in stock before, but there was a problem.

They all had been loved and used too much, like a child’s favourite blanket. Ten crisp £50 notes were offered on the spot none them less. No deal. It was 11pm, Tom was stuck in a dark, dingy and potentially dangerous room. He craved a dram of Laphroaig like a lost mountaineer. But still he argued our case. More cash appeared from his pocket. No deal. With great regret, he walked. Why? Because he knew that once they were out of that greasy light and in the Rat racks they would look, and be, in worse nick than we would want for those kinds of prices. So he dodged that black bullet for us all.

Teasing Tartan that he is though, he vows to return to the room in the New Year with just a little more wonga to save them for posterity.

Don’t despair, though. As you would have assumed, we still have a heaping helping of musical magic for you to paw through on Saturday. Classic Rock; Beatles, Dylan, Van Morrison, CSN, Cure, Triffids, GnR, Zappa, in large quantities!

Reggae; not unusual pieces but tasteful, Studio 1 Jennifer Lara, Marcia Griffiths, Toots, Bunny Wailer, you name it. Hip Hop on Tommy Boy, including old fave the Jungle Brothers and not to mention more unusual Disco 12″s from £2.

So that’s it for another week in our continuing adventures to bring you the best sounds at the best price. Stay cool, stay safe and see you in the racks!

Hello friends and welcome once again to the Inner Sleeve. We hope you find it cosy, devoid of any scratch or snap, crackle or pop causing residues. This week has been one of small miracles at Rat.

Which is a very good thing given the seriously dodgy vibes coming off the PXD Musicsoft FastTrak Hip Hop ejay thing we picked up on a buy, much like a naturist hiker might pick up a tick.

We’re not sure it works, and can’t find the right software, but it seems like a fake half remembered plastic take on a 1200 plinth from someone who never saw one.

You clearly hook it up to some dubious consumer Winblows PeeCee and tickle it to make soothingly commercial and familiar noises to impress girls.

Or not. This is where all the trouble started – tech making people think they are musicians, rather than musicians using tech to make music. A crucial difference cutting edge tech lovers Coldcut once made clear by saying something like “The trouble with technology is that it lets lots more people make bad music.” So we needed a load of lifts to take our mind off the fascinating, guilty thing hidden under the counter.

Firstly, our old friend Strictly Kev, often known as DJ Food, one of the finest musical minds out there, gave us a hat tip in this great interview with Record Collector. This gave us a bigger lift than a Ritalin covered rocket ship. Of course you would need some kind of exotic vehicle to get up and down that elephantine Wall of Sound you see there. It is so immense and deep it must bend gravity itself.

Then a series of sweet bite sized buys brightened things up. A musical mosaic that is so varied it twisted our melons like an atomic Magimix.

In no particular order, we’ve got stuff from the likes of : The Rock Steady Crew, The Spikes, Jah Wobble and Holger Czukay, a compilation called “band’it’s at ten o’clock”, Stiff little fingers, Penetration, Tom Browne, Big Joe Williams, The Electric prunes “Underground” LP, a rare NME compilation of peel sessions that only seems to have ever been out on tape, TV personalities “They could have been bigger than the beatles”, Branford Marsalis, Craig T Copper, Phillis Dillon and the revolutionaries, Dr Alimantado, OC Smith, Yvonne fair, Archie Bell & the Drells, Arthur Prysock, The delfonics, Mikey Dread, a rare John Holt LP with a Jackpot label but a Trojan catalogue number (!), two Lp’s by the amazing Pizzicato Five and some funny Japanese pop comps. And more: This Heat, Art Zoyd and a few other titles on the legendary Recommended records, and some compilation of all genres, including Belgian New Beat and Psychedelic Jazz. Oh and some Reggae ones too!

You get the picture; it’s a proper batch of all over the placeness like only Rat records can offer on one same Saturday.

On top of that, assuming you’ve not yet witnessed our haul of lockup buried treasure from Island, now is the time to follow the map right into our racks. We are trickling out factory fresh minty greatness from one of the top labels of all time so don’t miss.

Classic rock and top Drum and Bass are also lurking in the bins.

Including Syd Barrett “the madcap laughs”, Curved Air, and a South African copy of the Stones’ “Their Satanic Majesty’s Request” demurely retitled ” The Stones are Rolling”. I suppose that if you were living in a state based on violent, extreme, bizarrely obsessive racial discrimination having some kind of reference to an imaginary naughty super being on a record might be a step too far into gross indecency.

All this and more from people and times new and old that don’t think art or sound has shortcuts, and software access does not mean talent. So come on down and keep up the fight against the uncool ejay Babylon….! Until next time, stay safe, stay warm, and stay fueled by sound.

Hello again and welcome to the static free and rub mark resistant transmission from The Inner Sleeve.

The Rat run of intensity has not slowed down a tick since last week. The Celtic Frost Fiend that is Tom made a surprise appearance to continue the infinite process of black gold mining and dealing of vinyl justice to the world.

Details are still emerging of the circumstances in which these records came to us, but in one case they were sold by a very nice, yet somewhat menacingsemi-dwarf whose house was proportioned for little people. Tom had to literally get on his knees to liberate the vinyl from what was rapidly becoming a somewhat questionable Tom Petty video.

A big clutch of choice early 80s Soul and Disco from last week’s big expedition has appeared. As soon as the cash in likes ofRick Dees ‘Disco Duck’ and a wave of Bee Gee-aliketrash, combined with a good dash of homophobia and latent racism, had sunk the gilded barge of Disco by 79, the dance floors and hi-fis were cleared for a new generation of grooves. These new records did not have to tip a hat to wedding receptions, Travolta, Top 40 radio, or make any apology for themselves at all. This is still a seriously slept on era, but we have some of the best including cuts from Prelude, Excalibur, Streetwave, and even a bit of Larry Levan.

Mysteriously, the same collection also includes a classy cache of top guaranteed dance floor fillers from the Jacksons, to Salt n’ Pepa, Depeche Mode, Atomic Dog, Whistle – Just Buggin’ and beyond!

We’ve also got a break rich chunk of Mid 90s Drum and Bass (you know, when it wasat its best) including Virus, Prototype, Renegade Hardware, Metalheadz, Ram Records, Bad Company, Breakbeat Kaos, Formation and more. The same Gent obliged Tom with a class Hip Hop collection on 12 and LP; lots of Rawkus label artists, then Cocoa Brovaz, Mobb Deep, Lord Finesse and DJ Mike Smooth

For those who want some guitar goodness, we have a big bin of Classic Acoustic/Electric Folk into Rock; including moody guitar work from Bert Jansch to the Pastels via Richard Thompson and Fotheringay. Of course, the fruits of the Island continue to appear so don’t miss the chance to own factory fresh minty wax that rarely comes up in this condition.

Through thetwisted electric French grapevine, Philippe has obtained a selection of Battle Breaks records from the Dirt Style stable. These are the palette of a truly insanely great art form that may go into decline because many of today’s DJ’s grow up with a laptop rather than the 1s and 2s. Compare thereal scratch battlers to today’s Serato addicted and assisted crowd. It is like puttingMichelin Star chefs against aone fingered microwave operator.

Sometimes our customers themselves best sum up our struggle against the plastic Babylon. A heavily inked Brazilian gentleman, with more Rock in his veins than a volcano, came in the other day and bought a copy of Back in Black. He said “For me, to download this LP would be a kind of profanity.” Kind of nails it all right there. Until next time…

Hello again electric friends and welcome to the silky antistatic world of The Inner Sleeve. It’s been a pretty intense time at Rat this week, as the mysterious Celtic Fringe Fiend that is Tom has blown into town to mine black gold for us all.

If there was a new Indiana Jones franchise about the dangerous world of tracking down music, it would clean up at certain box offices. As well as be cheap to film. The Rat crew expose themselves to situations of grave personal danger and compromised hygiene. These range from meeting Vinnie Jones impersonators in front of Croydon chop shop lockups to ignoring showers of asbestos dust from a loft filled with lost musical treasures. On this trip Down Sarf Tom managed 7 buys in 12 hours. This is an impressive average of tempting fate and living to do it again.

It can actually get really surreal. Some creature found or guessed his number, and basically threatened him with some kind of Jimmy Saville record. It was a Top 10 comp of fromage from the late 60s that would drain cool from the shop like a gold plated vampire. They insisted he should buy it, especially given the sad news of the man’s toe tagging. Tom suggested they seek some urgent professional attention elsewhere.

So what did he get for us this Saturday? Rock Heads will delight in a great selection of superb Classic Rock Albums from £5: Who, Creedence, Zappa, Neil Young, Big Star, Lou Reed, Ramones, Nico, Stereolab, Doors, Leonard Cohen running into Creation etc and a great selection of less Classic but Original Rock albums from Yes, Uriah Heep and BJH at £3. Light relief for the Soul Vinyl fans is provided by some tasty sealed copies from the Dusty Fingers sampling selection, and a seasoning of original Isaac Hayes LPs. There is also a taste of Reggae vinyl; Sizzla, Capelton, Luciano etc on LP, and late 90s Drum n Bass in beautiful condition at £2-£3; Virus, Moving Shadow, Reinforced, Audio Couture.

There will be more shocking tales from the Tartan raider next time, we just have to wait to get all the facts in and make sure the signatures on the release forms are clean so do bear with us.

Speaking of clean, your faithful Sleeve snuck into the shop last week to have a lost masterpiece by Freddie Hubbard restored to glory by Rat’s Loricraft PRC Mark 4 , one of only one and half available for public use in London. At first, he was concerned that Dom, who you’ll remember has heavier Dance and House oriented creds on his CV than a funky architect and bricklayer with nine triple jointed legs, was deploying some kind of exotic sampler to siphon the very best breaks for his own nefarious use. This was not the case. In fact, the record ended up looking like it had come from some time tunnel to 1974. When Rat first got this magical lady in, some were unsure of the benefits compared to the good old carbon fibre brush we all need. Tom had a box of perfect Unboxed Decca of the kind collectors kill their best friends to own; untouched for 40 odd years, except by the marbling effect of the vinyl reacting with the sleeve it’s in. They looked like a bad bathroom tile. The Loricraft made them new again, and all gave praise. For less than a crap cocktail, you can have ten records restored thus.

In fact, Freddie is now calling us. Firstly to apologise for his later falling off the funky train of quality, secondly to make us spin High Energy yet again. Goodbye for now, and see you in the racks!

Our ennui and bitter musings last week seem to have got the attention of the dread vinyl Guédé who have taken mercy upon us.  Either that or our Dearest Leader himself, Tom, who is deeply in touch up there in the wilds of Scotland with dark forces we barely

understand, has been up to something again.  Our souls may be in peril, but your ears will reap the benefits.

The Rat Intelligence Network picked up a vicious rumour of a criminally abandoned lockup where a frightening amount of factory Fresh Island tunes, classic rock, world music, reggae LPs and 12″s were in peril. The firm employed to clear out the no doubt useless mess inside employed an urchin with more street sense than musical taste to dump the lot.  This is where we come in…

The image of novelty bong designer’s favourite Bob Marley was spotted on a couple discs, which were duly pocketed, but the rest were seen as a temporary inconvenience before a suitable skip could be located.

“Dunno if they are even worth anything, we all looked at them down the office and only knew the Marley stuff”, he sneered at our Fearless French agent, who kindly offered to rescue these mysterious plastic objects from his bored hands and sent him away with a pat on the head and enough lucre to get some mobile credit, sweets and a Rihanna ring tone. That’s Vinyl Justice.

If we put them all out at once it would tip the world on its end, but suffice to say Philippe gave up counting on the seventh overstuffed crate.  First out of the gate are Rico Rodriguez, Nine Inch Nails, Wailing Souls, Ini Kamoze, Traffic, Fairport Convention, Evervesence, John Martyn, Nick Drake, Tom Tom Club, Lee Perry, Black Uhuru, Manu Dibango, Kaleidoscope, Spooky Tooth and more.

And to add the wonderment, we’ve got ten transmissions from Sun Ra over from the USA, or perhaps somewhere even further away.

A pioneer of the DIY aesthetic decades before cartoon punks claimed all the credit, Sun Ra had even less interest in the formal music industry machine than it had in him.  These LPs were pressed on the fly in smaller quantities than Da Vinci drawings, and sold at gigs and to mates with handmade artwork.  They’re too dear just to stick in the shop as they run £200 to £800 even to friends, but ask nicely and you can take a gander.

We’ve also got an exciting collection of hot CDs, dance stuff from the good years. You know, when it was vital. On silver disc we have loads of Drum and Bass, Jungle, Breaks, Techno and electronica, in totally mint condition. Superb stuff, including from top labels such as Rhythm and Sound, Scape, Ghostly International, Chicks on Speed, Gigolo, Ram, Hospital, Good Looking and a lot lot more.

See you Saturday, or even on Saturn.

Well, it’s been quiet the past few days here. I assume everyone is lying down in parks or by an open air swimming pool…but here we keep dealing with dusty wax, making it look shiny with the hard working Lauricraft cleaning machine. I won’t tire to repeat it, the results, especially on 12″‘s are absolutely stunning. If you do online auctions, you will almost certainly get a grade up from giving it a nice clean. Don’t hesitate to come to us a with a few well used records to test it. I can garantee you won’t be looking back.
Since it is so quiet, we also have plenty of time for the parts of the job we sometimes tend to overlook. So this week i spent a lot of time rersearching and printing rare records and CDs reviews onto removable stickers so hoping that a bit of information may make them more attractive. We still have 3 turntables availaible to listen to all the records before to buy, and one CD listeninmg point too. However, I am getting so sick of people singing out loud at the counter with the headphones on…I bet that doesn’t happen at Phonica or Rough Trade!!
In fact, we have all sort of characters, wityh varying levels of nuttiness, and it is not rare to have punters dancing around with the sennheisers on at maximum volume….you can imagine that none of those are the Indie rock type.
Maybe this has happened a lot more recently because we have been getting so much R&B, Hip Hop, Soul and Funk, thanks to the seemingly endless supply of “E.I” records in our basement! And I must say that this week is not going to be much different. However, Tom will be in town next week (while I will be travelling to my St Malo for a week of holidays) and he has loads of people in his agenda waiting for him to visit them and deliver them from the weight of their record collections.
Of course, there will laso be top classic rock, bit of Jazz and Reggae and Blues and dance stuff for good measure.

We also have a pretty cool supply of new or newish CD’s, priced between £4 and £7.

That’s it for now, I will return all tanned and smiles in two weeks time.

Best to you all.

Ph. Rat Records.