Tag Archives: vinyl

Hyperbubble Drastic Cinematic Vinyl LP

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Drastic Cinematic is an ultra-indie vinyl LP from the label Pure Pop For Now People and will be quite rare and extremely hard to find soon–it’s a limited edition of 100 copies with a fabulous hand-designed/hand assembled cover.

The album itself? Utterly fantastic, especially if you’re a fan of soundtrack sounds by Tangerine Dream.

Hyperbubble is better known for bright, up-tempo robot pop with plenty of genre influences from bubblegum to electronica, but Drastic Cinematic is a departure from that–the soundtrack-y vibe is all through this vinyl record and Hyperbubble lays it on THICK with fat, heavy analog synth rhythms and pulsing beats that call to mind some of the most exciting electronic soundtracks of the 70s and early 80s.

Standout moments on this album include the great-for-driving Night Cruiser, and Blame It On The Bot. And don’t overlook the opening track Vox Noir which has an excellent “Beach Boys gone goth” sound.

If you were a fan of the soundtrack for The Park Is Mine or Thief, you owe it to yourself to own this. Sure, Drastic Cinematic by Hyperbubble is available via MP3 in the usual places, but the vinyl version of this is, in my mind, definitive. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, though I must say for transparency’s sake that the band used some of my photography for the album cover–maybe I’m not so impartial? Either way, if you are a fan of synth soundtrack music, have a listen and you will not regret it.

–Joe Wallace

TD’S CDs & LPs in Bloomington, Indiana

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The second stop of Vinyl Road Rage 4 was another familiar shop–TD’s CDs and LPs in Bloomington, Indiana. This shop, located at 322 East Kirkwood Avenue, is a basement record store in a building with a good coffee shop and several other attractions.

It’s been running in the basement there for over ten years, giving love to local bands, selling rare and weird music and with quite a good, diverse selection too.

Any fan of 80s/90s electronic or experimental music should definitely have a look. Nurse With Wound is very well represented there (just one example) and the soundtrack section is crammed full of great, obscure and hard to find titles–especially Goblin. Vinyl and CDs are both equally represented–this is not a shop that has one or the other as an afterthought.

Like other great indie record shops, the notes about some of the more attention-worthy releases handwritten or printed out by the staff on stickers make the shopping experience a lot more fun and informative.

There’s something about notes written by the people who work in that particular shop that make you feel like you’re really connecting with the store overall. It’s a great touch and a habit I like to encourage.

I can’t tell you how many albums I’ve purchased strictly on the content of those notes alone, and my visit to TD’s was no exception–at least one of my purchases was on the strength of those little writeups. TD’s is friendly, fun to shop and very cozy. The fact that you can go right next door for a caffeinated jolt and review your purchases is also a big plus.

I highly recommend this record store and it’s definitely on my “must shop” list for anytime I am in the area.

Fellow vinyl junkies, why not join me on Facebook? You can also become a fan of the official Facebook page for the upcoming Turntabling.net book WTF Records: The Turntabling Guide to Weird and Wonderful Vinyl.


Wah Wah Records Reissues Italian Analog Synth Classic

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BoingBoing.net reports on a reissue of the classic synth record Electronic Mind Waves by Elektriktus, courtesy of the Barcelona label Wah Wah Records. This is one Italian synth LP worth whatever expense you must endure to hear…and it’s out again on vinyl, glorious vinyl.

The record is described by Wah Wah as, “8 synth fueled songs that sound very close to what kraut/cosmische heads were doing at the time, think of Conrad Schnitzler, Deuter or Cosmic Jokers, and also other European experimentalists like Richard Pinhas’ Heldon, Spacecraft, Didier Bocquet, Seesselberg, F.G. Experimental Laboratory, Roberto Cacciapaglia or Hydrus. Along with Cacciapaglia and Hydrus, Elektriktus shows the most adventurous experimental sounds under a kraut/cosmische music influence to ever come out of Italy”.

The BoingBoing article links to a sample of the Mind Waves track, but we’re including a different one here, the “First Wave” cut for variety’s sake. By all means, listen to them both–chances are good you’ll be hooked for life. This reissue is, according to the information at Wah Wah Records at press time, limited to 500 copies and is sure to be gone fast…




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Landlocked Music Bloomington Indiana

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by Joe Wallace

The first stop on the cross-country record store road trip we call Vinyl Road Rage was a familiar one-–Landlocked Music in Bloomington, Indiana.

Bloomington is a great place to be if you’re a fan of good record stores, indie music, and weirdness overall. Landlocked Music has plenty of that–mostly found in the used soundtracks, ambient/experimental, and miscellaneous record sections. It’s easy to become a big fan of Landlocked as they’re open to a lot of musical craziness both genre-wise and in terms of format.

I found a nice selection of cassette-only projects which always makes me happy. I think today’s cassette culture people are totally nuts and I can’t imagine releasing anything on tape, which is why they are totally awesome to have around.

It’s good to see people fighting conventional wisdom so hard–AND making an interesting success of it as near as I can tell. Shine on, you crazy cassette people. (PS-I would love to know about cassette-only projects for coverage here. It’s just too retro not to do! Get in touch.)

Landlocked Music has a wonderful experimental/avant garde section that definitely needs a look if you’re a fan. I always gravitate toward the soundtrack/miscellaneous categories first as I’m a rabid collector of weird vinyl in the last couple of years.

While it’s true that I’ve covered Landlocked before, they deserve a second mention. Not only is the selection great, well-organized and fun to browse, but the staff are friendly and fun, too. The best record stores seem to have people who get it–the old cliche about folks being too cool to talk to you doesn’t exist at the really good shops I’ve found time and again.

Personality goes hand in hand with selection and Landlocked has both. Always approachable, never pretentious, and full of surprises (one visit I spotted a vinyl cutter on display and apparently for sale…) your opinion of Indiana as a vinyl destination will change after a stop here, rest assured.

Honestly, I wouldn’t go on and on about how fun and easygoing this shop is if it hadn’t been for some of the truly bizarre and unpleasant experiences I had at other shops on the road trip. When you find the awful stores, it makes places like Landlocked Music seem even more noteworthy.

Join me on Facebook as I’m quite active there and am always glad to make new friends–especially those obsessed with vinyl. Also, you can become a fan of the official Facebook page for my upcoming book WTF Records: The Turntabling Guide to Weird and Wonderful Vinyl.