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| Sound of the Universe |
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| Phonica |
Hi, I'm Maria's boyfriend, the military-mad one from the article about the Imperial War Museum.
I've been asked to write something about my music shopping when we go to London. Obviously nowadays you can buy all genres of music in any format you prefer on the net, but as you know, for anyone who really likes music, there's more pleasure in music digging. I buy music on sites like Boomkat and Bleep, and also on Amazon and similar sites, but every time I'm in London I love to look around a few music shops. I don't consider myself to be a great knower of London's music shops but there are a few that I really love, two of them are in the famous Soho area. As you might know, Soho has been the “fun” district of central London for many years; theatres, sexy shops, restaurants, clubs, bars of every kind can be found there. However, in the last few years other areas of London have aimed at being Soho's successors of the “underground” scene (musical, artistic and fashion), like Dalston, Shoreditch and Brick Lane. I like Soho because it's an area where almost every aspect of London is present, like an open air museum of London. You can find old pubs, vintage shops, fashion design shops, exotic restaurants, cool music shops, clubs and bars. That said, I am supposed to tell you about music shops (all the introduction was an ode to a place I like and suggest to visit!), there are two music shops in particular that I always visit: Phonica and Sound of the Universe.
Phonica is a shop where you can get the best contemporary electronic music, Nu Disco, House, Techno, Dubstep and UK Funky in particular, and then you can find a smaller selection that goes from Jazz to Hip Hop to indie rock. They are specialised in vynils but you can also find quite a good selection of cds; if you are a dj, or simply someone who wants to be sure about ones purchases, Phonica is the right place because they have quite a lot of listening posts where you can listen to everything before buying. If you are interested in dj equipment you can find quite a lot of stuff, from headphones to record bags, slip-mats, t shirts and some heavy equipment (speakers and so on). To conclude, the staff are kind and always ready to help, it's definitely worth a visit.
About Sound of the Universe, well there is a lot about this shop to be said. First thing, this shop is related to one of the best labels ever: “Soul Jazz Records”; if you don't know this label, shame on you! I'm joking, no I'm not, no I'm really joking, no I'm really not joking (yes... I am)! Why I think this label is so great? To keep it short (maybe it will be longer in another post) they publish almost every kind of modern music from all over the world and, from all over the world they republish great music from the past. In the shop they obviously have almost the entire catalogue of Soul Jazz records that goes from reprint of great ska and root reggae albums to blues and soul, dubstep and future bass (one of their seminal compilations of the past years). Of course, being a record shop, they have quite a lot of music coming from other labels, similar things that you can also find at Phonica. But while at Phonica, electronic and contemporary music are the protagonists, at Sound of the Universe there are no protagonists; it's a melting pot of past, present and future music available on cds, vynils, dvds and books. Regarding these last two, yes, you can find interesting books and dvds about specific music scenes published by Soul Jazz.
If you are leaving for London, have a nice hunt, a music one!
