Work In Progress

Welcome…

Anger is an energy. Or so someone who later developed

ON THE RECORD

30,000 cratediggers and 500 dealers from all over the

Simon says

Our columnist and former Cocteau Twin casts his mind back three decades to an unlikely collaboration that resulted in a lesser-known treasure

#20 John Phillips

John Phillips (John, The Wolf King Of L.A.) was the

Your most valuable vinyl

1992 UK 14-track vinyl LP, includes the singles 50ft

IAN PEEL’S LINER NOTES

As we announce the UK’s favourite record shop for 2018, it got me thinking about some of my favourite vinyl emporiums from the last four decades. If only I could remember all their names…

BLINKY BILL

The DJ, rapper and producer is putting modern Kenyan music on the global map

SLY STONE

Sly Stone is the centre of attention at the Record

SIMONE ODARANILE, THE GO! TEAM

Drummer Simone Odaranile is the rhythmic powerhouse behind The Go! Team. Her first encounter with The Distillers’ Coral Fang was a mind-blowing experience that sparked her passion to become a musician. Jennifer Otter Bickerdike hears her story

TOP 100 ALBUMS OF 2018

As another great year for vinyl draws to a close, our trusted panel of music-loving industry experts select the best albums of the past 12 months

Nervous Times

Alan Sparhawk of US Midwest minimalists Low tells Jonathan Wright how the band’s latest album came to embody the spirit of anxious America

Odes To Joy

Joy As An Act Of Resistance has brought the Bristol rebel rousers massive success. Laura Williams encounters our 2018 Album Of The Year winners

ALBUM OF THE YEAR

It certainly is, with his nearest and dearest bandmate

Fierce Friends

What happens when three gifted solo indie artists throw their hats into the ring together? The answer, as Laura Barton discovers, is a band called boygenius

EP OF THE YEAR BOYGENIUS

Though each songwriter provided the structure for two

Sound It Out Records

We had more than 8,000 votes in our inaugural Record Shop Of The Year competition. Gary Walker pays a visit to the worthy winner – Teesside’s Sound It Out Records

GEAR OF THE YEAR2018

There’s been a host of game-changing hardware released over the past year, so prepare your Christmas list as we announce our 2018 turntable, amp, speaker and headphone winners

ALL-IN-ONE TURNTABLES

This category is reserved for a design type as opposed to a price bracket. As such, the price point does wander a bit, but in 2018 the all-in-one design has become increasingly popular…

BUDGET TURNTABLES (£300-£700)

Entry-level designs that still pack a formidable sonic

MID-RANGE TURNTABLES (£700-£3,500)

Top choices at mid-level prices as turntable design

HIGH-END TURNTABLES (£3,500+)

The sky is the proverbial limit with money no object.

SPEAKERS

The competition was incredibly tight in this category, but these two wowed our judges

IT’S A HARDCORE LIFE

Starting with the Teen Idles’ Minor Disturbance EP in 1980, Washington D.C.’s Dischord Records has released a glut of punk, hardcore and post-hardcore records. Co-founder Ian MacKaye tells Murray Stassen how it all started

Classic Album PJ HARVEY RID OF ME

Tour burn-out and a painful breakup fuelled the creation of PJ Harvey’s monumental second studio album. As Neil Crossley explains, it remains her most striking creative achievement…

Stockholm

The globetrotting, cratedigging Mark Elliott extends his vinyl quest to the Swedish capital

Choice Cuts #20MADONNA LUCKY STAR 7 “ SINGLE

Lucky’s not the word if you happen to own a copy of this ultra-rare, Ireland-only pressing of an early-80s synth-pop gem

THE ESSENTIAL Krautrock

The deluge of truly experimental music that came out of Germany in the early 70s gave the sonic envelope a good pushing like never before. Gary Tipp drones on…

DIGGING FOR VICTORY

Fearless hunter of the ‘black gold’, Mark O’Shaughnessy braves an uninviting setting to uncover a trove of punk and New Wave treasure

Soundway Records

It all started for DJ and music producer Miles Cleret with a collection of Ghanaian music, then as Chris Parkin discovers, his label spread its reissue tentacles to other corners of the world

Kate Bush

Four years on from her wholly unexpected live return, our Kate is given a careerspanning series of remastered boxsets. John Earls wades happily through the vinyl

R.E.M

A triumphant chronicle of the US alt-giants’ enduring relationship with the Beeb. Gary Walker bemoans the lack of a vinyl boxset

Neil Young

The Archives series throws up a document of Young’s solo performances from his ‘76 tour. Steve Harnell listens in awe

American primitive guitar

Based on the fingerstyle acoustic guitar playing of its pioneering father, Chris Parkin traces the genre’s lineage from John Fahey to the modern day

DREAM MACHINESCHORD ELECTRONICS ULTIMA PREAMP AND ULTIMA MONO POWER AMPLIFIERS

DREAM MACHINESCHORD ELECTRONICS ULTIMA PREAMP AND ULTIMA

REGA PLANAR 8 TW0-SPEED BELT-DRIVEN TURNTABLE

The new Planar 8 is an extraordinarily good, goalpost-moving turntable. The highly impressed Jason Kennedy is wowed by Rega’s latest vibration-measuring machine

RELOOP TURN 5 TURNTABLE

Going down the direct-drive route, Paul Rigby runs the rule over Reloop’s Turn 5 turntable

MONITOR AUDIO STUDIO LOUDSPEAKERS

Whether on a stand or a bookshelf, these sprightly compacts offer resolution and clarity, as John Pickford discovers…

VINYL PASSION DUST BUSTER STYLUS CLEANER

Paul Rigby banishes the dust-on-theneedle blues with a neat new product

THE VINYLIST

With an album collection nudging the 3,000 mark, California resident Steven Schauer’s record-buying journey spans the genres, from classic rock to modern jazz