Danny Elfman "So Lo" 1984**

This is the only pop album to come out under the name of renowned film composer Danny Elfman. Of course in 1984 the Tim Burton collaborations and oscar nominations were still years away, while Elfman already had a career in pop as leader of the New Wave/Ska group Oingo Boingo. The band had started as a performing theater troupe and gradually morfed into a pop group, but still retained a strong theatrical element and fascination for everything macabre. Take a look at this album cover: does it surprise you that this guy wrote the songs to "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and "Corpse Bride"? Not to mention loaned his singing voice to those movies' bony characters, Jack Skellington and mr. Bonejangles. It's no wonder he and Tim Burton became inseparable; as the Greek saying goes "the pot rolled down and found the lid". Contrary to what the title (So Lo=solo) suggests, however, Elfman didn't exactly leave Oingo Boingo behind for this one. He pretty much used most of them on this album, which is why many reviewers still consider this as a part of their discography. Presumeably he decided to present it as a solo album because the overall sound is heavily influenced by synthpop, sounding like a cross between disco, proto-Depeche Mode and Talking Heads. It's not a good fit for the music; it ends up sounding hopelessly outdated despite having some good tunes. Opener "Gratitude" for example is a cool dance song merging new wave and world music, "Cool City" is another upbeat tune which reminds me of Big Audio Dynamite, while the mid-tempo "The Last Time" sounds more like David Byrne. "It Only Makes Me Laugh" exchanges synths for a more organic and bright ska sound with horns - an instant improvement. In general, if this wasn't Danny Elfman, I wouldn't have bothered with this album. As it is, there is some curio value - recognizing the Elfman we know and love from his soundtracks from time to time unexpectedely emerging from this typically 80's synthpop record. Tim Burton fans might want to check this out...

*** for Gratitude, Cool City, Go Away, It Only Makes Me Laugh, The Last Time

** for Sucker for Mystery, Tough as Nails, Lightning, Everybody Needs

Rotterdam Record Stores

Delft citizens like me have the privilege of combining living in this small, easily manageable and picturesque town with easy access to two big cities, The Hague (the country's administrative center and 3rd biggest city) and Rotterdam, which is Europe's biggest harbour and the Netherland's either largest or 2nd largest city. They are always in competition with Amsterdam about it. Both cities are capitals of multiculturalism, Amsterdam boasting the most nationalities and Rotterdam the biggest percentage of citizens of foreign descent - including the current mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb, a moderate socialist of Moroccan origin. Otherwise, they couldn't be more different: Amsterdam is a showcase for traditional Holland, all small typical Dutch houses, bridges and canals. It draws millions of tourists, not only because of its undeniable beauty but also because of its "liberal" attitude of institutionalised and controlled prostitution and drug trade. Rotterdam, on the other hand, was mercilessly bombed during Word War II, destroying all its more traditional features. The Dutch decided to rebuilt it using the most progressive architectural ideas. It often seems to be copying New York, with its skyscrapers and bridges. And if you want to see the innovative architecture I was talking about, step out the train on the Rotterdam Blaak station and take a look at the closed market and Piet Blom's cube houses. Blaak is also a good place to start your record store walk, about 5 minutes from the Oude Binnenweg street which houses many shops, including the Donner bookshop and Media Markt. This is where I usually start my record shop walk in Rotterdam, basically a straight line of shops less than 20 minutes away from each other. Now, I know it's not a real record shop, but I felt I had to mention it as it is a place that sells records and CD's. Following the general trend, its music department is constantly shrinking - now it's much smaller than the DVD's department and probably equal to the Games one. As usual with these shops, advantages include good prices on CD's (offers €6-12, the rest €12-20) and listening stations. Vinyl is making a comeback here as well so there are also (new) LP's on sale (€20-30).

A bit further up on the same street (Oude Binnenweg 121) you can find Rotterdam's Velvet Music. Velvet is usually a good record shop chain, though this shop isn't as big as, say, the one in Leiden or Delft. Maybe 20-30% of the shop is dedicated to vinyl (LP's €15-30), mostly you'll find (new) CD's and DVD's. There are a lot of CD's on offer (mostly 2-for-€15), the rest cost €12-20, more or less the usual prices. 

After crossing Eendrachtsplein, Oude Binnenweg gives way to Nieuwe Binnenweg. Here, on numder 81A, you'll find De Platboef. We're talking about THE best 2nd hand shop in The Netherlands. Huge selection of CD's: Pop/Rock/Alternative/Metal/Rap/Blues - all genres, really. By the entrance, you'll find stands with €1 CD's that are always worth searching. Lots of 90's hits, pop music past its sellout date, but some cool stuff too. If you're missing albums by the likes of REM, Cranberries, Madonna or Lenny Kravitz you'll probably get them here cheap. Most of the used CD's cost €5 (actually between €3,5-7,5). Mingled with the rest, there are also new CD's in the usual price range. Used LP's take most of the 2nd floor (€5-10), new ones mostly downstairs (€8-30). Mainstream and Alternative rock, psychedelia, reggae, r&b, metal, jazz/country/blues, really all genres are represented. Just a few meters away (Nieuwe Binnenweg 67b), on the opposite side of the street, is Demonfuzz Records. A great store for vinyl lovers, carries lots of LP's and 7'singles, both new and used. The price range is between €7-30, not super cheap but mostly good and often rare stuff, not the same old LP's everyone is trying to get rid of. Classic rock, indie, psych, soul etc.

Just turn right on van Speykstraat 145, a couple of corners later, to find Vinylspot. Like the name suggests, the store carries just vinyl, mostly used but also new. There's a huge selection of jazz, and a sizeable portion of classic rock. Prices mostly between €15-30 but also some offers €5-10. Searching has revealed some weird rarities, though nothing to get (me) really excited about. Back to Blaak (as Amy used to sing) and the Markt square, instead of heading to Binnenweg you can take Botersloot Street (behind another impressive building, that of Rotterdam's public library) and head for Songs for Sale, a nice store with a large collection of second-hand music (corner of Botersloot en Meent). The shop is divided almost 50/50 between vinyl and CD's. The prices are very good: used CD's mostly cost €4,5 and no more than €7. Special offers go for €2,5, and new CD's between €9-18. Used LP's between €4,5-15, mostly €5-7 and new LP's around €20. A completely different experience is Hans Tweedehands, behind the Rotterdam Centraal station (Provenierssingel 89). It's quite small and stacked with (2nd hand) CD's almost  to the ceiling. There's a good variety and competitive prices but not enough room to move. Any sudden movement may result in the CD stacks falling like dominoes all around you. I never see other clients here, which makes me think that Hans probably uses this as a warehouse and sells his wares online or at festivals and record bazars. Nearby, on Walenburgerweg 81, you can find Hitsound which is somewhat specialised in Oldies and Country music. Mostly CD's and some secondhand vinyl. This being Holland, there's also a market for techno/dance music of which I'm not a fan. I'll just mention some shops specialized in this kind of music, according to internet sources: Thatz-It (Zwaanshals 362), Triple Vision (Nieuwe Binnenweg 106), and Clone Records (Raampoortstraat 12). There's also Blues & Rock Records on Burg. Baumannlaan 130a, but I've never been there as it's on Overschie, which isn't walking distance to the center. Lots of sites mention Plato as one of the record stores you should visit in R'dam, but it's been closed now for 4 or 5 years. I guess this blog is going to be just as outdated sometime, so take notice: this info, prices etc. are current as of January 2017. UPDATE 2020: I haven't gone record hunting in Rotterdam for quite some time, but my internet search reveals that Blues & Rock Records is permanently closed and Triple Vision has moved and only functions as warehouse and distribution. A shop I haven't checked yet is Pinkman Records (Schiestraat 14, walking distance from Central Station). At the North-Eastern part of the city, you have De Oorzaak (De Vijverhofstraat 60) and JensDoRecords (Zwaanshals 294B). Hans Tweedehands apparently goes now by the name Van Hoffe In- en Verkoop and, judging by the photos on google, has a bigger emphasis on vinyl but hasn't changed much otherwise: the records are still packed on top of each other on huge stacks which, as you probably know, is a horrible way to treat vinyl.

Sue Saad and The Next "Sue Saad and The Next" 1980***

Sometimes you just choose an album by its cover. At least I do - provided it comes cheap enough, and this sure did. The cover said to me: Long forgotten hopefuls. Power Pop (I'm a big fan) or New Wave (Not such a big fan, but I grew up in the 80's, so it there's a nostalgia effect). Plus visually it's worth owning - the band's pose on it is a hoot, like accidental self-parody! Oh I could write a lot about it, but I couldn't possibly outdo this blogger, who named it the worst album cover of all time! Among other comments, he has a name for this specific look: "Dance Instructors Who Are Also Portraying A Street Gang In A Shitty Movie". Ha! I swear I've seen enough such movies as a kid. We only had two TV channels, the State one and the Armed Forces one - zapping wasn't a choice! As for the content: Power Pop? Check! New Wave? Check! AOR ballads? Check! Late 70's zeitgeist? Absolutely! Think Blondie, Joan Jett, Pat Benetar, Sniff''n The Tears all rolled into one... Just not the best bits from each band. The LP reached #131 at the charts, which is no more or less than what it deserved. The band also appeared in a few B-movie soundtracks (Roadie, Looker, Radioactive Dreams, Vicious Lips), then promptly disappeared without making a second record. Which is fine, because disappearing after one record is exactly the stuff cult bands are made of, and I say these guys and girl's cult status is long overdue! The album has a lot of rockers falling halfway between classic rock and new wave, featuring clean production and great lead guitar by Tony Riparetti: "Gimme Love/Gimme Pain", "Your Lips-Hands-Kiss-Love", "Danger Love" - all nice but ultimately unexceptional, and very much of their time (think Foreigner/Heart/Survivor etc). Predictably, I prefer the faster, punkier ones "It's Gotcha" and "I I Me Me" but I also love the reggae-ish "Young Girl" with Sue Saad (improbably that's her real name) channelling Debbie Harry. There are also a couple of big ballads, "Cold Night Rain" and "Prisoner". The latter must have made an impact in its time, as it was soon covered by acts as diverse as Sheena Easton and...Uriah Heep! Most blogs report that the album has never been re-released, but discogs lists a CD reissue by the now-defunct Renaissance Records. In any case, that should be more expensive and harder to find than the original vinyl, so I suggest you dig out a copy of the LP - especially if you like good power pop and new wave and appreciate an interesting miss as much as a hit. Meanwhile, I'll seek out those B-Movies featuring Sue Saad's music: I suspect I'll be unearthing at least one "so bad it's good" cult classic.

**** for Young Girl, I I Me Me

*** for Gimme Love/Gimme Pain, It's Gotcha, Prisoner, Your Lips-Hands-Kiss-Love, Danger Love

** for I Want Him, Cold Night Rain, Won't Give It Up

CCCP Fedeli Alla Linea "Socialismo e Barbarie" 1987****

I knew of CCCP's reputation as the best/most historic Italian punk band, so when I saw this CD at a second-hand store (in Antwerp, if I remember correctly) I bought it blindly without having heard a single note of music from this band. The contents were a pleasant surprise: I would have been happy with an Italian-language punk record as a curio addition in my collection, but this so much more: an amalgam of punk, folk, goth, new wave, ethnic and religious sounds that somehow gels as a cohesive artistic statement. CCCP (Russian for "USSR"/Soviet Union) describe their music as "pro-Soviet punk", but that is of course just a hoax. They embrace the Soviet aesthetic in order to ridicule it, much as Laibach did with fascism, but do so in such a convincing way that you're never sure whether you've witnessed a parody or a sincere tribute. The title of this (their 2nd album) is "Socialism and barbarism" which should be answer enough, as it reverses the famous dilemma set by Rosa Luxemburg ("Socialism or barbarism"). On the other side, the album cover reeks of socialist realism with its depiction of a worker in the Fiat auto assembly line, and the album opens with "A ja ljublju SSSR" ("I love you, USSR"), an industrial/goth version of the communist hymn The Internationale. Lyrics, as is often the case with CCCP, are spoken rather than sung. Not speaking Italian, I can't convey the spirit of the album but knowing the political climate in Italy at the time it's safe to say that the underlying message isn't "communism is bad" but rather a criticism to the Soviet regime for corrupting the communist ideal. Four punk/hardcore songs follow, of which "Tu menti" ("you lie") exposes English punks as pseudo-revolutionary fashion victims. Playfully, they do it using the main guitar riff from Sex Pistols' "Liar". Then, unexpectedly, the noisy "Stati Di Agitazione" segues into the Catholic hymn "Libera me Domine" with its Bach-like organ. From here on punk takes a back seat: "Manifesto" is mostly spoken over goth/new wave backing music and "Sura" is an almost-instrumental in the same style. "Hong Kong" is a Far East-sounding instrumental, while "Radio Kabul" transports us to the Middle East. The drums and snaky melody remind me of another underground 80's group, Savage Republic. "Inch'Allah ça va" continues with the Arabic influences but successfully marries them to cabaret and French chanson. The CD adds a current single "Oh! Battagliero/Guerra e pace". The former song is Italian folk in tango beat and the latter consists of alternating waltz and punk passages (supposed to represent "War" and "Peace" probably?). CCCP's second (first for a major label) album "Socialismo e Barbarie" is certainly a challenging and multi-levelled work of art, a hidden treasure trove of music. For intelligent listeners only...

***** for A ja ljublju SSSR, Inch'Allah ça va

**** for Per me lo so, Tu menti, Libera me Domine, Manifesto, Radio Kabul, Oh! Battagliero, Guerra e pace

*** for Rozzemilia, Stati di agitazione, Hong Kong, Sura

Deadbolt "Haight Street Hippie Massacre/Best of Deadbolt" 2003*** (compilation, recorded 1993-2002)

When I realised Friday The 13th was coming once more, I went straight to my CD racks to choose a relevant album for my blog. You see I have developed this tradition of posting horror albums every Friday the 13th. Neglecting to present one would be like The Simpsons not airing a Treehouse Of Horror episode on Halloween - unthinkable. Thankfully, I didn't have to search for long. The obvious choice presented itself by the time I reached D: Deadbolt, the self-proclaimed "scariest band in the world".

"Haight Street Hippie Massacre" is a Best-Of - which, seeing as all this band's songs sound the same, just means it includes more tracks than the average Deadbolt CD. They've dubbed their style "voodoobilly", but if that's not enough for you imagine a mutant strain of psychobilly with surf guitars and lots of country twang - especially in the half-spoken/half-sung vocals. I imagine that's about how Johhny Cash should sound now i.e. after he's been dead for a dozen or so years. The lyrics are basically recounting supernatural horror tales, or stories of crime and decadence from the gutter, always violent and misanthropic e.g. on the (previously unreleased) opener "Go Tell Alice" they fantasize the Haight hippie massacre of the title set to the tune of Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit": "One bullet makes you slower/the next one makes you dead/and a bottle of patchouli/is crushed upon your head/Go tell Alice/that I'm not through yet...". It's not just hippies though, they have a bad word for everyone. On the live "You Don't Want to Know Me" they insult a member of the audience for looking like a grunge rocker. Reputedly live gigs often degenerate into good-natured(?) exchange of abuses between them and their audience, punk-rock style. As I said before, their songs sound more or less the same (you'll find more variation on a Ramones LP) but if I had to choose my favourites those would be the exotica flavored/themed "Tiki Man" and "Zulu Death Mask", rockabilly "Who the Hell Is Mrs. Valdez?" and hillarious hard-boiled country "Truck Driving S.O.B.". Sample lyric: "Two antique dealers in a SUV proceeded to cut me off/I followed them downtown to one of them artists' lofts/One of the guys came to the door, he said "Hi you must be Mitch"/I said "no" I punched him in the teeth and said "I'm a truck driving son of a bitch"/Aw yeah..truck driving son of a bitch/Chain smokin', baby chokin' truck driving son of a bitch". Among other goodies for the dedicated fan who already has all of Deadbolt's albums (I imagine there must be at least a dozen of them fans) this CD includes previously unreleased live and studio tracks, the craziest Burt Bacharah tribute ever "Rain Drops Keep Falling on My Head" and a couple of songs ("Hang Em' High", "Stanger's Theme") from their alter egos The Strangers 1800 who perform exclusively music from old Western movies. As for them being the scariest band on the world, I don't know. I recently saw Ozzy Osbourne live (I think he was live, I mean he did move and sort-of sang, but he looked like a corpse). I saw the Meteors pick a fight with a poor fan in the audience - and that wasn't the scary part. The scary part was P. Paul Fenech taking off his shirt and unleashing his tattooed beer belly to the world. I saw Sky Saxon shortly before he died and he looked like a psychedelic skeleton with a cowboy hat - I'll bet the grass growing on this guy's grave is ten times more hallucinogenic than your most potent weed. On the other hand, an interviewer proclaimed Deadbolt to be "just about the nicest people you could ever hope to meet" - but then he proceeded to write about them carrying guns around, and of their guns going off in all kinds of directions. I guess I'll have to reserve judgement for after I've seen Deadbolt live...

**** for Tiki Man, Who the Hell Is Mrs Valdez?, Zulu Death Mask, Truck Driving S.O.B.

*** for Go Tell Alice, Cockeye, Shrunken Head, Down in the Lab, Swamp Witch, Last Time I Saw Cole, Watongo, Voodoo Truckers, Hang Em' High, Stanger's Theme, Rain Drops Keep Falling on My Head

** for You Don't Want to Know Me [Live],  Edie, Hit Gone Wrong, I Saw the King, Pour the Bourbon [Live], Listen to the Message

Sissi Rada "Pragma" 2016***

This was a present from my friend, Anastasia. She's the only person still giving me CD's without asking me whether I own them first. Everyone else assumes that, if something is up my alley, I probably have it already. Not unreasonably - after all, even I buy me albums I already have, sometimes. Embarassingly, the last weeks I bought about 20 CD's of which it turned out that I already had 4. Anyway, I hadn't even heard of Sissi Rada before. Apparently she's a Greek harpist now living and working in Berlin. Her harp and fairy-like vocals remind me of Joanna Newsom, while the more amospheric pieces have something of This Mortal Coil, a "goth" band I love dearly. According to a press release I found, Sissi calls her music "coquettish-classical-electro-doom pop". It's a charming label, but I've been around too long to be impressed by such genre mixing: Anything "experimental" you think you came up with, pretty soon you'll find that Pink Floyd, Can, Faust or someone else probably already did it in the early 70's. So it's really a question of songcraft and atmospherics. This album has at least one great piece of songwriting "Little White Boat". It could make my Best Of The Year compilation - if I wasn't too deeply absorbed with the past to still make those compilations. It's melodic dream pop of the best order, often reminiscent of Kate Bush, with poignant harp and strings. "Your Laptop" is another strong song, an atmospheric ballad with dreamy vocals and beautiful harp. The lyrics, about us being more intimate with our technological devices than with people, sound sadly too true. "Sunday" is another highlight, mixing Joana Newsom fey-isms and P.J.Harvey rock-isms. "Clouds" also contains some bursts of electric guitar - unwelcome, if you ask me. "Judy Garland" is a rather experimental piece, but the rhythmic elements work quite nicely. "Elevator" also successfully blends the electronic sounds with dreamy female vocals, in a manner reminiscent of Portishead's 3rd album. The Greek language songs "Batman", "Seirinas" are among the more electronic ones and remind me of Greek electronic music pioneer Lena Platonos. Not among my favourites here, and neither is "Macaroni And Tears", or "Sousourada" which sounds like a Bjork song from that musical where she played a blind girl. Generally, though, quite an interesting album which could benefit from a more straight approach: Sissi and her collaborator Max Trieder try too many things out, and not every one is a success. I guess that's how you progress, though: trial and error. I'm looking forward to hearing what they'll do next. 

**** for Little White Boat

*** for Sunday, Elevator, Judy Garland, Your Laptop, Batman, Sousourada

** for Lapislazuli/Macaroni and Tears, Clouds, Seirinas

Anathema "Hindsight" 2008****

The metalhead (I hope it's politically correct to use this term, for me at least it doesn't have negative connotations) friend who introduced me to Anathema told me I'd love their new record and that they had taken a turn towards a Pink Floyd-ish sound. That album was Alternative 4 and the year was 1998. I liked it enough, copied it from him on a CD-R and listened to it from time to time for a couple of years. Then I kinda forgot about them for more than a decade. I read on magazines that they had completed their move away from metal towards prog or alternative rock. I meant to check them out but kept postponing it, so my acquaintance with the new, improved (?) Anathema was made in a live setting, in an Athens club on August 30, 2014 (see: clip below). I didn't recognize any songs until the encore but I had a great time, as did everyone present. Most of them knew all the songs by heart, though. I was very surprised to discover they had two singers, as Vincent Cavanagh shared vocal duties with Lee Douglas. She sounded like a cross between Portishead's Beth Gibbons and The Gathering's Anneke van Giersbergen (with whom Cavanagh has cooperated in the past) and bonded well with the rest of the band. Their music had also changed quite a lot; far from their metal roots, one could describe it as darkly atmospheric alternative rock.

After the show, I decided to cover lost ground by buying this album that compiles re-recordings of tracks taken (mostly) from their previous 3 albums, performed in an acoustic setting. Unlike other "unplugged" albums, these are not stark acoustic renditions of the familiar songs. Rather the songs have been re-written to fit the new instrumentation: keyboards, cello, acoustic (and the occasional electric) guitar, bass and drums. Cavanagh's wounded vocals are the main focus, conveying emotion perfectly. Lee Douglas' contribution is more subdued but when she takes lead (as in "A Natural Disaster") she steals the show. 

Dave Wesling (of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic) on cello adds a lush layer on the music, but he's even better when he plays the main riff as he does on my all-time favorite Anathema song "Fragile Dreams" from Alternative 4. He's just as good on the other track from that album "Inner Silence". From 1999's "Judgement" we get the dramatic "One Last Goodbye" with its melancholic piano on the forefront. From 2001's A Fine Day to Exit there's "Leave No Trace" and "Temporary Peace" with the two singers trading vocals. From 2003's A Natural Disaster we get the gorgeous same-named track, folky "Are You There?" and "Flying" with its ringing Irish mandolin. "Angelica" is the oldest song here (from 1996's 'Eternity'), and the most changed. The original was quite gothic while this one is much lighter. Lastly this compilation contains a completely new song. "Unchained (Tales of the Unexpected)", a ballad featuring gentle acoustic guitar and haunted cello. In general, "Hindsight" works well both as an introduction to Anathema's gentler side and as a standalone album. It's a very atmospheric and consistently good record - in fact, if one wants to find a downside, it'd be its uniform tranquility and lack of the intensity we've come to expect from hard rockers like Anathema. But that's what their other albums are for...

***** for Fragile Dreams, A Natural Disaster

**** for Leave No Trace, Inner Silence, One Last Goodbye, Are You There?, Angelica, Temporary Peace

*** for Flying, Unchained (Tales of the Unexpected)

Deventer Record Stores

Until a couple of months ago I may have seen Deventer on the map of Holland (though technically the Dutch province of Overijssel is part of The Netherlands, but not of Holland) but I never thought anything about it. It just so happened that I was offered a job requiring frequent travelling to Deventer, and I was pleasantly surprised to discover one of the country's most beautiful historic city centers, and learn of the festivals taking place there, including the famous Dickensian Christmas feast. The picturesque streets of the old center are also home to stylish and original cafes and shops, as well as of the BeNeLux best record shop for 2016, variaworld. So I couldn't pass up the chance to write a small guide to the record shops of Deventer although I don't expect many of my readers to find themselves there. 

Variaworld is situated at Kleine Overstraat 8-12 in the old city center and is divided in two halves, each one dedicated to LP's or CD's. It's not really big but it carries a lot of stuff without feeling overtly cluttered, that alone is a hell of an achievement! Here you'll find a lot of new vinyl releases (mostly €20-30, offers €6,90-12). All kinds of music but especially a wide stoner/psych collection, jazz/blues, folk and rock. There's also a good, if somewhat hodge-podge, portion of used LP's (around €10). To be fair, I was more interested in the CD's, having found many out-of-print 2nd hands for €5-6, including some rare 60's psychedelia. Another stylish shop on the same street is Koning Willem, partly a toy store but with a good vinyl selection. I found a lot of rare early alternative/new wave 2nd hand records, classic rock and more. Mostly between €13-30, but some as low as €1. Although not exclusively a record shop, it's definitely worth your time.

In the passage at the end of the same street there's an unnamed shop (internet sources identify it as Walk-In) that introduces itself as a CD/Vinyl outlet and has a lot of used LPs (mostly priced €3-10) and CD's (usually around €5, many offers for €1-3). Moving to the central Brink Square, here you'll find the local Plato shop, situated above a hip café/bar called De Hip. Record shops of the Plato/Concerto chain are usually good, and so is this one. There are some used CD's (usually €5, some €2,5), as well as new CD's on in the usual prices, and many offers (2 for €15). There are also some DVD's and vinyl (new LP's are €13-30). A few meters away, on the corner of Keizerstraat and Walstraat (where the Dickens festival takes place), there's the Praamstra bookshop (and site of the old Plato) which has a nice -which is not to say wide- selection of classical and jazz music as well as pop. On Walstraat 119, in what looks like the ground floor of a private house, there's another record shop with no name which caries a lot of classical, jazz and world records and CDs as well as some pop/rock. The prices are very good (CD's around €3-4) and the owner is quite friendly. Last but not least, there's Musicshop Disc on Smedenstraat 27. The variety and prices are good enough, but it isn't of much interest to collectors - more of a neighborhood record shop than something for the connoisseur. Nothing wrong with that, of course.

I wish neighborhood record shops had survived everywhere: I bought my first records and had the beginning of my musical education in my neighborhood record shop, there were tons of them around when I was growing up. It has to do with personal service, and you sense it's important here too - otherwise why would the owner use a caricature of himself as the shop logo? Anyway, I'm glad I'll be visiting Deventer a lot this year, and that I'll be staying in the center. The city's record shops are certainly part of its appeal for me...UPDATE: a few months after I posted this entry, there have been some changes: For once (and it's a pity) King William has stopped selling records. I don't mean the actual Dutch King of course, just the toy/record store in Deventer. Bizarre that they should give up now that vinyl is doing better than any time in the last 20 years. On the bright side, the ever-mobile Plato has moved again, this time from above the Hip to a far more convenient spot at the corner of Lange Bisschopstraat 22 and Kleine Overstraat, joining Varia World and Walk-In in creating a nice niche for record lovers.