Record lovers are salivating at this image. For the rest of you, it’s RoughTrade’s storefront. (CC-BY-SA) Ewan Munro.
If someone were to buy you a shopping spree, letting you roam free to stash anything you wanted in your cart, you could do worse than winding up with Schneiders Buero, the Berlin-based music gear boutique. And for records, the wonderful RoughTrade in London would easily be a top pick.
Let’s combine them.
That’s what happens in a new series of Schneiders Buero videos, as the man Mr. Schneider himself takes to the aisles of one of the world’s best-known record shops – and his own in-store corner full of musical creations.
Getting on to some specific gear demos, we see the futuristic, retro, and everything in between.
The VXXY DCM8 is a new 8-bit “chip music” drum machine, recalling Nintendo and FM sound chips of the past. The London-based creator gives us a look. I have to say, even with all the gear out there at the moment, this may be one of the more desirable boutique drum machines on the horizon; we’ll be on the lookout for its final release.
The young lads of AlphaSphere are back with their big orb of pads, looking like something from the set of Doctor Who:
We’re in England, but that doesn’t stop some major Berliners from showing up. Legendary musician Wolfgang Seidel stops by for an interview to talk about doing live performance with an array of cassettes. (This is not just dull press-play business – think Ableton Live, as made in the 70s with tape decks.)
The Volkstrautonium is a newly-invented remake of the classic Trautonium. I was fawning over this at Musikmesse; it’s a beautiful instrument to play. It comes along for the London trip, and we get a closer look at this 30s-era imagination of an electronic instrument for the home. As Moog once said about his instrument, and as is often said of the Theremin, part of the idea is making vocal-style sounds:
I hope this is a regular feature at Rough Trade. Time to hit the easyJet website and see you fine folks soon.
Record Store Day is over and done with, but, really, that can be every day, no? And it’s nice to see synths and records come together, the physical manifestations of the music we love. The Internet is great (hello, Internet), but sometimes, there’s no substitute.
http://www.roughtraderecords.com