Collection strut 2024

[kicks79]

So what's going on with your collection in 2024?
I'm in purge mode currently. I am coming to terms with the fact that post-COVID my DJ gigs have evaporated due to a mix of venue closures and new kids in the mix. I only had two paid gigs this year.
So I'm offloading tons of 12"s that I use to play out. Most of the hip hop from the last 24 years is going as well.
I need to make more space and cash for all the Brazil, prog, jazz, library, Latin and reggae joints I don't have.

 

[ketan]

Scared me until that last line. :shame:

I decided on a fixed amount of records in the collectron based on space in the home - it's around 1500. I got rid of stuff at shows to get down to that (and a lot of chud went to the thirft store at one point). I try to be much more discerning about what I buy, although still take chances on the cheap bins... just not as many at any one time/my instincts are better these days. I also spend more time now listening through my collection to find things I don't really need so that I can bring new things in. I feel like I'm in a good place with it all...

 

[klezmer electro-thug beats]

This year, along with my usual slow accrual of 45s, I am buying a lot of tiny-run DJ mixes on cassette because I am a sucker and/or mark. Perhaps even a buster. Getting a nice refurbed walkman on ebay was the gateway drug, even though I have a decent dual deck - 900 sq ft and two kids means I don't have a place to keep it permanently set up, so the walkman opened the gates back into tapes.
And while I sympathize with the opinion that there's no reason to own music on tape as a format categorically, I think limited runs of weird stuff - DJ mixes and beat tapes with loads of uncleared samples, Drumetrics being Drumetrics, etc. - seem to be a sweet spot for me where I look past that. Like I still don't want to own (insert hip-hop classic here) on tape just to have it when there's 8 million ways to listen to it in better fidelity and convenience, but that kinda offbeat stuff kinda gets me. Mixes are also good for just chucking on. When I'm listening digitally I am constantly DJing for myself, switching songs and fiddling, and when I'm listening to records it's in one of two contexts only, relaxed living room listening or putting stuff on for the kids to jump around to. So tapes fit in a spot where I'm cooking or doing chores or walking where I can set and forget. If I walked around outside messing with my phone between each song like I do with digital music, that shit would get snatched anyway. A walkman would just confuse the guy on the electric bike enough for me to duck him.

 

[Electrode]

My place is the same size also with a collection of around 1500. I only keep the best of the best: soul staples, underrated gems, jazz and rock from around the world which slingshots you into oblivion to the raers which all have a story behind how I obtained them by chance.

I put off going through everything to figure out what mildly interesting records deserve to be traded for what little credit a record store concerned about making a profit in 2024 will give me. Even if some of them wind up going to the thrift store, at least they will still be circulated.

I have a smaller CD and DVD collection. Last year I donated a large cardboard box of VHS tapes of dubbed, pan-and-scan versions of European cop films for the American rental market. I no longer need them as they have already been rereleased as originally intended in high def.

Keeping all the autographs.

 

[ketan]

I have a lot of tapes but they're packed away atm. Rarely buy a cassette now. But yeah, mixtapes for daze. There were many spots across Toronto/Hamilton where you could get different selections in the 90s. Question: is there a new scene of producing cassette mixapes??

This was in heavy rotation - 2nd wave ninjatune, I reckon.

 

[klezmer electro-thug beats]

Bandcamp has mixtapes! You can filter by format if you're just browsing. I have like four from Bay Area underground mainstay Luke Sick with 12 Man Rambo, series called Mobbulator. I get some of Weaponize Records' mixtape series as well, Funk Night Records' in-house mixtape series which they don't seem to be doing as much of now that they're releasing loads of LPs, along with random shit I picked up at the store (DJ Platurn's icelandic funk mix, random guys' beat tapes off bandcamp). Check bandcamp for new-release cassettes and be weirded out, like I was. Many you gotta be kind of quick though cause it's not a moneymaker for anybody - lots of runs of 50 or 100.

I wish I had that Vadim though...

 

[kicks79]

I had the first 25 mins of that Vadim and Prime Cuts mix that came free with a Mixmag back in the day. Used to get heavy rotation on the old CD Walkman. I never realised that it was longer than the 25-minute sampler though.
I've got tons of CDs I need to dump as well. But def keeping all the DJ mix ones.

 

[Yemsky]

Most of my vinyl has been in another country for the last 20 years and because I spent a lot of time driving back then I switched to CDs as the car was my main listening venue. Can’t kick the habit and keep on buying if not daily, then at least weekly. Currently have a box of around 100 on the way from Japan…
Combined catalogued count in Discogs is around 10k, which is short by a few K of vinyl. My kids keep warning me that I need to sort this out before I leave this stage.

 

[ketan]

Yemsky said:

My kids keep warning me that I need to sort this out before I leave this stage.



ur kids are smrt tho

 

[Rustledust]

It's still growing despite half hearted attempts to purge. Slowed down but the jones never leaves.

6K+ records per Discogs with some new shelving to clear the floor piles and a clear out of my storage space needed desperately.

 

[ppadilha]

I'm probably around 1500 LPs right now, plus a few hundred Brazilian 7"s. At this point adding a lot more would require either adding a ton of shelves to the living room or moving to another place with an extra room. Money's been tight lately anyways, so it's kind of a moot point, plus I don't go crazy picking up 10-20 LPs at a time because prices are stupid these days. I try to purge some stuff every once in a while to make room for new things, and try to be more discerning about what I do pick up. Even if I had the money to move into a bigger place, I don't see myself adding 1000s of records, just getting some of teh jazz I slept on BITD and those Brazilian and West African grails I need.

 

[para11ax]

I’m around 1500 - 2000 records of various formats. I was buying 10-20 records a month between 2014 - 2018 when I had a weekly gig, which died with COVID.
I’ve made zero attempts to find a regular spot, including one I was welcomed to by a fellow DJ specializing in 45s. I’m too tired to drive 35 minutes, play from 10-2 on a Saturday to a small and mostly disinterested crowd for $80 (my half), then be home by 3am for my wife and kids to wake me at 8. I’m just old now, I guess, and my records are collecting dust

 

[billbradley]

In 2024 I bought way less records to keep. Going through my photos from the past year I saw maybe 6 records I was excited about keeping. It ebbs and flows from year to year. Some years I'm hyper focused on selling to make money for restoring my VW and other years I'm buying up raers. I've also been trying to go out less to save money so that I can travel more with my wife and kids.

Currently I have around 10,000 records at the house so there is no shortage of music to listen to. Diggin' in my own crates I keep finding things I've had filed away for years that I forgot about.

 

[klezmer electro-thug beats]

Tape strut:

stuff I got this month





MOBBULATOR Vol. 4 Jeff The Crook by MOBBULATOR


The Duke Ya Love To Hate - I Really Have No Idea What's Going On Here, But I Like It by The Duke Ya Love To Hate



PICKERS #1 - oddity comp by V/A



PICKERS #2 - oddity comp by V/A