record (store) review: Monitor Records, HK
I don’t usually don’t do record store reviews (but maybe I should start). Deprived of indie record stores for a while, I finally visited visited one in Monitor Records in Hong Kong.[1]
It’s a small shop, Aquarius Records-sized. They have things divided into categories like “alternative” (which includes some indie rock), “post-rock” (which somehow also includes bands like Aqueduct and Damien Jurado), “spanish pop” and “goth metal” (or something like that, I didn’t look at that section too carefully). They have a wide variety of music there. I don’t want to come off sounding like an indie music snob, but a lot of record stores I go to, I know a pretty wide range of the music they’re selling. Here, I knew some bands, sure, but it seemed like a lot of the music I didn’t know.
The clerk [and owner, I presume] was nice and gave me some good recommendations on what local stuff I should check out.
Anyway, I liked this place. It’s a bit hard to look through everything and the categories don’t quite sense to me, but the selection is good, if a bit out there, and having a knowledgeable clerk is a necessity in a good record store.
[1] Note: Lonely Planet lists Monitor Records but their current address is wrong. Check here for the current address. The current address I have as of this post is:
Monitor Records
5/F, Po Cheong Commerical Building,
29 Prat Avenue,
Tsim Sha Tsui,
Kolwoon, Hong Kong
[...] There aren’t any labels where I’ll buy anything the label puts out blind, but Morr Music is perhaps one of the closest. The Berlin indie electronic label doesn’t put out 100% great records, but it puts out consistently good stuff by bands/ artists like ms john soda, Styrofoam, Benni Hemm Hemm, Lali Puna and others. There’s a decent chance I’ll like a release from the label. When I was at Monitor Records a couple weeks ago, they oddly had some records separated out by label, including Morr, so of course I took a closer look. I’d never heard of The Year Of, whose album, Slow Days came out last year, but I saw that some (real, or organic) instruments and programming were done by B. Fleischmann with more instrumentation and vocals done by other people. I’ve liked some of B. Fleischmann’s lappop stuff and the prospect of his sensibilities with more organic instrumentation was intriguing. I bought it unheard. [...]