Hello,
Later this week I'll be traveling to London for the first time since I was a teenager.
Does anyone have any recommendations for where and how to dip into what the city has to offer for music? Venues, places that sell records, other things to geek out on? I'll only be there for a little more than a week and I'm not trying to exhaustively experience everything, but looking for anything I shouldn't miss or should at a minimum be aware of.
I know of Cafe Oto and that's about it.
For whatever it's worth my taste in improvised music is less toward 'lowercase'/eai/etc and more toward things with some relationship to the jazz idiom, but I'm open to checking out almost anything.
thankyouthankyouthankyou
London music venues, record shops, etc
Re: London music venues, record shops, etc
there's a brand new record shop: http://electrickniferecords.co.uk/
it looks mostly noise oriented at the moment, so maybe not so up your street
it looks mostly noise oriented at the moment, so maybe not so up your street
Re: London music venues, record shops, etc
i haven't been to london in a long time either, but if i were to pass through i'd definitely want to go to honest jon's.
m
m
Re: London music venues, record shops, etc
Wrong time to buy CDs in London.
Perhaps with the exception of Foyles (on Tottenham Crt Rd) and Harold Moore's for classical/contemporary (some ATs, Wandelweiser, Edition RZ on the latter) .
The few surviving shops down Berwick Str (very near Harold Moores), the 2nd hand shops on Notting Hill Gate, and Honest jon's are a shadow of what they used to be.
Even HMV on Oxford Str doesn't appear to be there anymore.
Perhaps with the exception of Foyles (on Tottenham Crt Rd) and Harold Moore's for classical/contemporary (some ATs, Wandelweiser, Edition RZ on the latter) .
The few surviving shops down Berwick Str (very near Harold Moores), the 2nd hand shops on Notting Hill Gate, and Honest jon's are a shadow of what they used to be.
Even HMV on Oxford Str doesn't appear to be there anymore.
Re: London music venues, record shops, etc
I will check out a noise-oriented record store if I have time. I just made the distinction between different sorts of improvised music because I know there's a strong eai/minimal interest here and I wanted to throw my preferences out there in case it colored the recommendations at all. However, I can get into some more minimal/less idiomatic improv and definitely the more noisy end is cool with me.
If the record shopping doesn't bear a lot of fruit, that's OK but I wanted to have some idea of what was out there.
Thanks to all of you for the suggestions!
If the record shopping doesn't bear a lot of fruit, that's OK but I wanted to have some idea of what was out there.
Thanks to all of you for the suggestions!
Re: London music venues, record shops, etc
Back from London, didn't fully explore the record shops but had a fantastic time.
I made it to Foyles briefly and while the contemporary-classical/new-music selection was impressive, my limited time, their selling only CDs and the prices in comparison to the US together kept me from getting anything. The only other place I really explored was Sounds of the Universe - I appreciate a lot of what the Soul Jazz and Universal Sound labels do, so I had been really curious to go - but it was a bit more dance and DJ-oriented than I expected, and later on I realized that I had missed out on a whole section of vinyl downstairs. Oops.
Wanted to get a chance to go to Electric Knife and see what was left in Notting Hill Gate but those will have to wait until next time, I guess...
I made it to Foyles briefly and while the contemporary-classical/new-music selection was impressive, my limited time, their selling only CDs and the prices in comparison to the US together kept me from getting anything. The only other place I really explored was Sounds of the Universe - I appreciate a lot of what the Soul Jazz and Universal Sound labels do, so I had been really curious to go - but it was a bit more dance and DJ-oriented than I expected, and later on I realized that I had missed out on a whole section of vinyl downstairs. Oops.
Wanted to get a chance to go to Electric Knife and see what was left in Notting Hill Gate but those will have to wait until next time, I guess...