trunkrecords

DECEMBER

Before we go any further these records are not that festive. Well one or two of them might be but I have resisted listing a whole bunch of snow covered tinkly bell musak. I have simply stuck to the simple Trunk Recommendations rule and that is to list music that is being keenly spun chez Trunk. These recordings have come from all over the place - upstairs, on-line, in shops, fayres, from lists, anywhere in fact that has records. On reflection it has been a fine year for finding new records, but a bad year for me and boot fayres. I went to one (the first and only one of the year for me) in late October, found one box of nearly interesting looking records including quite a rare 'Windy Miller Goes Fishing" BBC LP and before I'd even had a chance to get it out of the box and look at it some geezer was hovering over my shoulder wanting to know if I'd finished looking at the records yet. I mean I hadn't even really started, this was 10 am so not even competitively early and still I get hassled. I really can't be arsed anymore. Anyway, one of the better places for music this year for me has been The Spitalfields Records Fayre. It's on twice a month, always has loads of odd 50p singles and the occasional super weird oddity. I hope it carries on in the new year. I'll shut up about it now. Here's looking forward to a good 2007.

OCTOBER

Over the last couple of weekends I have had a massive clear up. Hundreds, possibly thousands of LPs and singles have been refiled, sorted, organised: in the case of my soundtracks all are now alphabetical, and library recordings are now all filed first by library name and then in order of catalogue number. And I can tell you now there are many, many advantages to all this. First of all I am a saddo. But at least now I know instantly where everything is, which, when doing things like radio shows and that, is a godsend. Everything also looks nice and neat and tidy which is not something I have experienced before. The other advantage for me was the suprise rediscovery of a number of LPs I'd not seen for a long while. This can either be a drag or a joy, and in this recent case both emotions were experienced as this lost booty slowly rose back into my life. During this vast clear up and organise session I also moved my turntable from large old cumbersome shelving onto an old stainless steel dentist trollley. This trolley was being thrown out onto Harley Street on a wet Sunday afternoon recently. I spotted it and immediately offered to pay for it but the cockney house clearer just told me to bugger off with it. Well I think that's what he said. My turntable set up is now like a little steel and black mobile discoteque in the front room. It's surely only a few weeks before my wife calls accuses me of being gay.

JULY

This Summer sees the arrival and spinning of a few singles. Quite a lot of singles actually. I have always had small problems with singles, they're very short and you have to get up and change them after about three minutes. I know that's obvious but I still find it a bit annoying. And I'll probably go on about it later on too. But I'm slowly getting used to it as a format and therefore there are more singles than normal mentioned here in the recommendations. I've also gone through a bit of a funny period with all my records again. They're bloody everywhere, I keep bringing more home, there are hundreds and thousands of them and every now and then, especially recently, I go through this thought process where I decide I don't want any records anymore and want them all gone and the space clear again and so on. They are heavy, need looking after if they are used often, require constant filing when they are used after djing and searches, they have to be protected from heat and dust and sunlight and sometimes I just can't be bothered with it all. And then a bit later on I realise that my life would be very different, far stranger, much quieter and far less pleasurable without them all. In a strange way all these little pieces of black heat-pressed plastic are my little chums. And here are the latest in a long line of chums that you maybe should look out for.

MAY

Things have changed dramatically in the Trunk household. We now have another member - a very small member...yes none other than Teeny Tiny Trunk has arrived. This is officially my son, and he's just broken wind again. What a stink. As a result of this all new, and quite unsettling excitement of new life my listening tastes have changed slightly - become more childish, and child friendly. But only in my opinion. Also, and I am quite sure about this, I will be spending more on new nappies than I will be on new vinyl over the next couple of years. I think this is a good thing and I will start to appreciate the LPs I already have. With all this in mind and all this going on, this is the all new list of listening.

JANUARY

Well who's a lucky boy then? Yes, me me me. I went to Japan . Just before the end of 2005. Only for a few short days but this was almost too exciting for me. It was a one off chance (possibly my only ever chance) to go and I took it. Japan , in vinyl terms, is this mythical museum-like place. All the folks I know who have been and gone there already have raved about all the record shops. And now it was my turn to go see. And what a bonkers place. I went to Tokyo , and the various odd places within that vast urban cityscape - Shibuya, Shinjuku, Shimokitazawa, Ginza , Snoopytown and other funny areas I can't remember the names of. Shimokitazawa is a very small suburb of Tokyo but still manages to cram in 26 lecord shops. Yes, that's 26 shops, and there's even a free lecord shop map which I have carefully scanned for you.
And so yes, I got to Tokyo , got to grips with travel, and ventured out with an empty lecord bag to find all sorts of vinyl madness awaiting me. One thing that came to my immediate attention is that you go into a good record shop and they have incredible vinyl everywhere. All super rare stuff. And if you go in the same shop the next day there are even more super rare stuff that has obviously appeared over night. The other thing worth pointing out is that all their prices are pretty spot on. Few bargains are to be had - or at least in the time I had available. Most of my trip was spent window shopping, going ooh look, there's that incredible LP that I have never seen before, and ooh look, it's £600. I'll get my coat. As a result only a few of the babies below are from Japan . Yes, I have been trading elsewhere as usual. But before I get on with the records, I should really thank the collectors who advised me of vinyl shopping and places to go before I even got to Japan - Pete Fowler, Martin Karminsky and Fred Deakin. I shall now continue...

Recommendations Archive