i saw one called area 51 records in braintree, looked phat, thats in essex tho!

I dont have the time for record shops any more so i get my vinyls online :weee:

TBH i reckon the London shops are just riding on their “reputations” and you are unlikely to find anything you couldn’t have got online

plus you are going to have to compete for attention with regulars who spend more than you and may have befriended the staff as well as “name DJs” (probably B or #C list though)

many of these are closing down anyway.,..

a lot of “real” record shops acorss the nation have died out is because they cherrypicked the customers they would deal with – also real physical stores are a security risk, they attract people who are often drug users (I don’t mean normal ravers but the “hangers on”) who will have no problem about robbing the place (especially as it gets more well known and successful) so banks are less likely to fund them than a online venture

And if you are not finding “tunes you want or that many “new tunes” there is also the harsh possibility that they are simply not being made or released (other than maybe dubplates to the superstar DJs if they still exist)

there is far less cash available in the electronic dance music scene compared to a few years ago – more competition for the youths’ money from other genres, less legal events, and those what remain “lower cost” and more “local” than compared to the superclub culture (not that this is a bad thing though)

for stuff like Tidy weekender more and more cash goes to security and police costs and venue hire/insurance rather than artists.

Also the feds have become a lot more smarter at choking off the sources of “easier venture capital” that clearly came from the sale of illegal drugs with its “easy come easy go” sort of ethos.

Money is tight, releasiing vinyl is risky with no profit guarantee. I suspect more and more good tunes which would have previously gone to vinyl just now remain on producers hard drives, and people who would have gone “professional” and do actually have the talent no longer give up the day job as its not worth it or drop back into the ratrace.

In this climate many tunes are released direct to digital formats but even then lots of producers don’t want to release a MP3 to the wrong places as it will get pirated within seconds, but they may even just send you the file if they can trust you.

I think what remains of the dance music scene is increasinly going to go local again anyway rather than revolve around cities (a bit like the early 1990s)

imo is quite good they are friendly in there too

blackmarket records and uptown records are good for D+B and like musics

can’t remeber exactly where they are ..but you should be able to find them on the web