I’m in Toronto now and between there and Sonic Boom I think I did alright. Going to have a quick mooch at Cosmos later which will bring an end to my record buying for 2022. If you’re ever in Toronto, Sonic Boom, Invisible City and Cosmos are all within very easy walking distance of each other. Loads of great places to eat as well on your walks if you get hungry.
Just a quick little review on the stores of you haven’t been: IC is in a Chinese Mall, and is small yet mighty. They stock almost exactly what you’d think they’d play and there’s so much quality it’s almost overwhelming. They’re super friendly as well, and it’s a real community. Records are priced to sell. Best tote bags in the world as well.
Sonic Boom is a large store, but downstairs is where you want to head. Staff are cool but are the interact when spoken to kind, but that is not surprising given the space. Loads of surprising finds and the prices are decent.
Cosmos. There’s two locations, one specializing in funk, soul, disco, hip hop and the other jazz, Brazilian, etc. Both have impeccable service and you leave with things you never knew you needed. Prices are decent as well.
Toronto is the best city for finding music in North America hands down. Probably the best city in NA as well, super diverse, friendly people, great food and lots of independent stores selling just about anything.
Basically what I’m saying is a visit to the frozen north should be on all of your itineraries. Vancouver as well if you get the chance, was there earlier this week as well.
Love love love that Cheryl Glasgow track, just does something to me every time I hear it.
Have seen it’s just been reissued but is only on a 7 for some reason, so I’ll probably keep playing the nicely done extended edit on this that came out earlier this year:
vancouver was low-key the best city on the west coast up until about 10 years ago. it’s still lovely and full of amazing people but since all the hot money has arrived, it’s gone completely unaffordable which takes the shine off of it - but the same could be said for most of the pacific cities.
i really wish i would have made the commitment to move up there like i talked about in the 90s.
Is it better than Seattle? I like Vancouver but not sure I’d live there. It’s very expensive, and I feel like a lot of what made it great is rapidly fleeing. Great food though.
Jura Soundsystem - Transmission 2
Photek - Mine To Give
Mory Kante - Ye ke ye ke
Good Plus edits
Gooch - Caught Up In You (Local Artist and Yu Su Remix)
Rico Toto - Fwa Epi Sajes
Shawn Pittman - Dreams
Yu Su - Roll With The Punches
Carl & Carole - Ole Time Calypso
Sweet Clover - You’re What I Need
Pellegrino pres. Zodyaco
The System - Almost Grown
Tata - It’s A Mess
Natalie Cole - Thankful
Mad Honey - Setback
Chayell - It’s Never Too Hot
Suzanne Ciani - Lixiviation
V/A - Sintesis Moderna
V/A - Ritmo Fantasia
Fashion - Fabrique
Mario Rui Silva - Stories From Another Time
Brasingles vol. 3
Some of these are gifts for friends but a pretty healthy trip.
hmmm - let’s say that back when everything was cheap, it was certainly more global than seattle, and i think that’s a good thing. i believe that canadian immigration policy was decidedly more liberal than the US starting somewhere in the 70’s - and by the time i started visiting with any regularity (the early 90’s) it felt much more international than seattle or portland.
about 10-15 years ago or maybe even more - vancouver became one of the places where global investment in property was both safe (compared to say, the stock markets in emerging financial territories where the government could intervene quickly - should they decide to do so) and easy (low canadian regulation and at the time - a surplus of housing and buildings). VERY quickly a single family home in the 'couv might go from 300k to 1 mil to 3 mil to 5 mil - and yet stay unoccupied the whole time. commercial real estate wasn’t that much different. you could buy and let something sit empty and in two years have doubled your investment. or more.
this priced out pretty much everyone who wasn’t a trust fund kid. all the things that we love - indie shops, nightclubs, bars, galleries, restaurants… well, if there wasn’t VC behind it, it wasn’t gonna just pop up out of nowhere. all of a sudden it feels like everything is either owned by generational wealth or foreign money.
and it’s like that in seattle and portland too and it happened a long time ago in san francisco, only it’s slightly different in the US where it’s more driven by employment and tech dollars rather than foreign investement. it’s a different world than it used to be, and all of the above can be applied to most desirable places to live or be. some cities or destinations are more volatile the others - it seems to me that the old desirable places (nyc, etc) fluctuate less wildly than the new desirable places (portland, austin, etc.) and i suspect the same is true in europe and maybe asia, but i don’t have the same perspective.
anyway, that’s a long way of saying vancouver and seattle are same same in a lot of ways, but i probably notice the change in vancouver more because i don’t live there. here in seattle, i’m the proverbial frog in the pan.
The idea that a home is a commodity not somewhere to live sickens me to the core.
If you walk through some of the smart bits of London after dark now there are virtually no lights on, because no-one lives there.
I saw an 80’s interview with Bob Hoskins where he was talking about how London was getting sterilised by greed. The same can be said for capital cities around the world. Australia has the most unaffordable house prices on the planet due to 25 years of investor greed. The median price for a home in Sydney is 1.2 million. All the while making it a less interesting place culturally speaking.
Moral dilemma there! Go with proud- SAWII will still sound great in another 30 years.
In future he might even be able to say “we could pick these up for less than £150 when I were a lad”
Not sure what happened. Maybe a Christmas miracle? I found this Li Garattoni - Find Out What I’m Dreamin original copy in incredible condition with 2 inserts. Record looks untouched and cover has just minimal corner bump. Otherwise near mint. I paid 34€. WTF?
This record has been in my wantlist for ages. Record full of beautiful and emotional songs with heavy cosmic vibe.
