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| Tower Records in Osaka |
Osaka is a city that I have only visited once before back in March as part
of a business trip. I flew in to Osaka
for two days before getting the Shinkansen to Tokyo – I have written about this trip, including visiting the mega Tower Records in Namba, in a previous post.
This time around, Osaka was the last leg of my journey following a visit to Tokyo (which you can read about here). My flight back to the UK (via a tedious stop-over in Dubai)
wasn’t until late at night giving me a few hours to myself during the day.
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| The sign at the entrance to the building where Newtone, Afro Juice and Rootdown are in Osaka |
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| Afro Juice records in Osaka |
I don’t really know Osaka as well as Tokyo and not wanting to be trekking
all around the city, I decided to stick to an area close to my hotel. A quick search online told me that an area to west of the Dontobori shopping area and
just south of Shinsaibashi Station called Nishishinsaibashi would be worth hitting
up.
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| The entrance to the building where Newtone, Afro Juice and Rootdown are |
Nishishinsaibashi is a hipster enclave of small alleyways and streets
littered with interesting looking independent shops and cafes, and populated by
lots of trendy looking people. It was a bustling little area, and felt less manic
than other areas of Osaka I’d been too. It reminded me a bit of the Northern
Quarter in Manchester. The area sits like an island flanked by two highways,
one of which separates Nishishinsaibashi from the tourist trap of the roofed Dontobori
shopping area and is full of high end, eye-wateringly expensive shops. I had
made a note of a small selection of records stores that I wanted to visit, but
other than that I was more interested in having a stroll and taking in the
sights.
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| Newtone Records in Osaka |
One of the first stores I wanted to try and find was Newtone Records.
After walking around a few times around the block where Google Maps had taken I was
sure it wasn’t there. Just as I was about to give up I spotted a sign outside
the building. Not only was Newtone here, but the same building also house two
other record stores – Afro Juice Records and Rootdown Records. I didn’t go in
to these so I’m not sure what they’re like, but if you are reading this
hopefully I have given you a good idea where they are so you don’t make multiple
laps of the same block much to the amusement of suited salarymen like I did.
I did head up the stairs and pop in to Newtone Records for a little
nosey around. It was a compact, yet well stocked and organised store. Their
main focus seemed to be on a lot of house, dance, electronic stuff, with both
new and used vinyl. There was a small section towards the front of the shop
with a few rows of more rock and indie-orientated releases, but overall Newtone
Records’ speciality was cutting-edge electronic and dance stuff.
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| The building where Voxmusic is |
Voxmusic was another store in this area that I had read was worth
visiting. Consulting my map I headed towards where it was and
soon spotted the sign on the side of building. Entering the lift to go up
to the 5th floor, as the doors began to close a man started to say
something in Japanese to me, but before I knew it the lift had closed and
deposited me at the top of the building. When I got there Voxmusic was nowhere to be seen. The only shop unit was closed and looked empty. When I got back to the
bottom of the building the man was stood there waiting for me. Asking
if I was looking for Voxmusic, he kindly told me that it had moved and pointed
me in the direction of where it now is. How nice of him. It did make me wonder
why they still kept the sign up outside the building though…
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| The entrance to the building where Voxmusic is |
It was starting to get late in the afternoon by this point, but I did
find the building where Voxmusic now is, but didn’t have time to go in as I
was on a mission to track down King Kong Music. But first a little detour to
Flake Records as it was sort out on the way, but sort of on the way.
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| Flake Records in Osaka |
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| Outside Flake Records |
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| Records display inside Flake Records |
Situated on the very edge of this area across one of the busy roads is
Flake Records. Another store that was hard to find and I was about to give up after numerous walks up and down the same road until I eventually spotted a
on the street pointing me in the correct direction. I really liked Flake Records. A narrow shop with racks taking up
the majority of floor space, tidy display shelves on the walls, and the counter
running along most of the back wall. The shop mainly stocked new releases on
both CD and vinyl with an emphasis on modern pop, hip hop and indie-rock - the
kind of stuff Pitchfork reviews. If I lived in Osaka I could see myself
shopping here for new releases.
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| Ishizue Music Osaka |
Around the corner from King Kong Music I passed Ishizue Music –
another record store squeezed in to this relatively tiny area of Osaka. It’s remarkable how
a city like Osaka can sustain numerous record stores, but it does mean that the
options for music lovers feels endless.
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| King King Music in Osaka |
King Kong Music is easy to spot with its pink columns and bargain bins stacked on the streets outside. Going down the stairs
you are met by a huge room that’s probably similar in size to Recofan in
Shibuya. In fact, King Kong Records reminded me a lot of Recofan – wall-to-wall
second hand vinyl piled from floor to ceiling, a real crate-diggers paradise.
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| Inside King Kong Records |
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| Inside King Kong Records |
There
was all sorts here and all neatly organised in to sections and genres, from
rock, pop, hip hop, through to jazz and classical. There was also an impressive
CD section and loads of LazerDiscs including some expensive Beatles ones. They
also had a decent sized section of old Japanese music. Result I thought, they’ve
got to have the elusive Takeshi Terauchi Rashomon album here. Although they did
have a few of his records, it wasn’t to be. I even asked the man behind the
counter who confirmed my suspicions. Much like Recofan, not only was in rammed
with a gargantuan amount of viny, everything seemed fairly priced to boot. If
I’m ever in Osaka again and I’ve got a bit more time and money I’ll definitely
be going back to King Kong Music.
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| The entrance to Time Bomb Records in Osaka |
Making my way back to my hotel, I accidentally found myself walking past Time Bomb Records. A store that I had seen mentioned on a couple of blogs, but didn’t
really have any intention of going in. Curiosity took the better of me though and I
thought I would go in for a quick nosey. It was a large open plan store divided
by a partition going down the middle separating it in to two halves. The shop
mainly stocked rock n’ roll, rockabilly and punk, while at the back I spotted a
few racks of indie rock and krautrock; although it was definitely the former
styles of music they obviously specialised in.
As I was leaving I saw a western looking man mysteriously being
escorted out of a side door. Was he one of the elite record collectors that
travel the world snapping up the rarest of the rare vinyl?
So no records for me this time in Osaka, but I did enjoy having a little wander
around and discovering an area of the city that I hadn’t been to before. If you have stumbled across this post while searching about record stores in Osaka then at least I hope that it will act as a helpful little guide.
Read my previous posts about Record Store shopping in Japan below:
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