Goodbye 2025. Soul Strut lives on in 2026.

[RAJ]

This was a wild year for me. Turned 50. Endured insufferable work drama that led my wife and I to walk away from a 25 year legacy we helped create. Empty nested. 2026 is a clean slate and I hope to spend more time on this place, record digging, seeing some of you in making real world movez. Cheers!

Here's some random acquisitions shot with old digital cams:

 

[DStrangelove]

Dear Raj, indeed 2025 was a wild year. My best wishes to you for 2026!

 

[kicks79]

I made some real-world moves in 2025. Got married and moved ( 35 boxes of records, something I'm not in any rush to have to do again). Looking forward to hopefully some international travel and record digging in 2026.
Happy New Year, everyone.

 

[Jimster]

Thanks for keeping the lights on mi amigo.

I think people don't understand the value of this community until they get the time back (or some of it) that they didn't have when they were doing jobs and family raising and all the stuff that real life throws at you that stops you taking stock of your place in the world around you. It's a fucking battle, no lie. I hope for my US brethren that things change for the better.

Here's to a great 2026!

 

[klezmer electro-thug beats]

FWIW I'm still checkin the strut like I'm 15. Long may it continue, Raj. And congrats on the Expensive Shit.

2025 was a wild one for me, made preparations for a massive move (basically as far from one place to another as it is possible to move on the earth) with the family, and then held off pulling the trigger at the last second. Gonna do it next year. Huge risk, no way to mitigate by like, getting a permanent job offer beforehand or anything, but sometimes you gotta try shit.

 

[ketan]

hny strutteurs!

2025 was a year of chronic pain for me, followed by highly effective non-opioid drugs coming into my life. it's not a marriage but it's quite a special union nonetheless. (congrats kick79!) also got back on the decks after a loooong time, which made me feel less old.

klez, which part of the world are you considering a move to?

 

[klezmer electro-thug beats]

London to NZ. I lived there in my 20s (partner's from there), loved it (despite its No Records), but moved for career reasons, now have little kids and never intended to be in London forever. If you drilled a hole down from London through the center of the earth you'd end up in the sea just off my partner's birthplace in the South Island. It's like, literally as far as you can get. It was easier to do the move there to here when it was just us as a couple.

I'd always hoped for a spell back home in California before "ending up" back in NZ to sort of settle/grow old, but honestly hard to consider moving right now to be closer to family who are all themselves making quiet inquiries into bugging out of the chaos of the Fourth Reich (not their exact words... but the impression I get). Like things are tough and weird everywhere, but moving into the epicenter...

Congrats on getting some control over your pain. Very difficult balancing act as I understand it from family's experience.

 

[ketan]

oooh, pretty jealous that you're going to settle down in NZ. i have a mate who moved to Auckland about 15 years ago and he's never looked back (and is mostly in board shorts out of office).

 

[r@@K]

The Year of the FIRE HORSE

It's going to be a _____ one

 

[Electrode]

2025 wasn't the greatest year for me to be honest: a lot of missed opportunities, mostly of my own doing due to struggles with alcoholism. 2026 started out rough as I was diagnosed with a rhabdomyolysis after having a seizure at work last Monday and I spent the past week and a half in the hospital. I'm fine now. But it did give me a kick in the ass to finally get stone sober (or at least be able to drink one beer and not crave downing another several) for good.

Here's to a new year with a clearer head, new adventures and getting back into buying records on a regular basis.

I wish you all the best for the '26 as well.

 

[billbradley]

2025 wasn't the greatest year for me to be honest: a lot of missed opportunities, mostly of my own doing due to struggles with alcoholism. 2026 started out rough as I was diagnosed with a rhabdomyolysis after having a seizure at work last Monday and I spent the past week and a half in the hospital. I'm fine now. But it did give me a kick in the ass to finally get stone sober (or at least be able to drink one beer and not crave downing another several) for good.

Here's to a new year with a clearer head, new adventures and getting back into buying records on a regular basis.

I wish you all the best for the '26 as well.

Glad to hear you are on the mend. One day at a time...

 

[billbradley]

My wife and I have been trying out go out less (to save money) and travel more. In 2025 we did more camping trips with friends in our VW buses. For 2026 we are planning to take the twins to London for a week. We may drive the bus from Texas out to California to drive up the PCH and hit some national parks also.

 

[kicks79]

Thanks Ketan!

Oh Damn Electrode, that sounds painful. Get better, homie. Booze can really mess up your life. My brother-in-law nearly drank himself to death this year. Thankfully, a near-death experience seems to have straightened him out.

Klemzer, you're bucking the trend; everyone seems to be moving away from NZ. I lived there in 2000, and they did have some records.

 

[ketan]

rhabdomyolysis sound rough, but glad it's the motivation you need. r**n, you've been posting the illest finds over the last few years (you too, Bill), so looking forward to seeing more of that in '26!

 

[Electrode]

My wife and I have been trying out go out less (to save money) and travel more. In 2025 we did more camping trips with friends in our VW buses. For 2026 we are planning to take the twins to London for a week. We may drive the bus from Texas out to California to drive up the PCH and hit some national parks also.

I'm doing the same; saving for a trip to the Pantanal and Foz Do Iguaçu in May. And my brother has been begging me to visit him in Boston. I've never been east of the Rockies, so I'll likely do that later this year after the Brazilian trip.

I live in northeast Los Angeles. Feel free to reach out if you're nearby and want to meet up.

 

[Jimster]

My wife and I have been trying out go out less (to save money) and travel more. In 2025 we did more camping trips with friends in our VW buses. For 2026 we are planning to take the twins to London for a week. We may drive the bus from Texas out to California to drive up the PCH and hit some national parks also.

Holler if you do plan the UK for real. We're in the East Midlands. London is cool and all that but not the typical UK city. Fortunately the trains here are good and if you book in advance (weeks) you can get deals. York, Chester, Pembrokeshire, Lake District, Loch Ness... People are chill, understand sarcasm is the local currency everywhere.

 

[Jimster]

2025 wasn't the greatest year for me to be honest: a lot of missed opportunities, mostly of my own doing due to struggles with alcoholism. 2026 started out rough as I was diagnosed with a rhabdomyolysis after having a seizure at work last Monday and I spent the past week and a half in the hospital. I'm fine now. But it did give me a kick in the ass to finally get stone sober (or at least be able to drink one beer and not crave downing another several) for good.

Here's to a new year with a clearer head, new adventures and getting back into buying records on a regular basis.

I wish you all the best for the '26 as well.

Best of luck with it R**n. My mum struggled with it in her later years and it dulled her mentally to the point where she wasn't herself unless she was two glasses of wine deep.

She got angry if we stopped her drinking as once my dad had passed, it was probably her only escape. Life throws these grey situations at you right?

You obviously have a deep passion and understand of music - get into playing an instrument, see where the muse takes you? It's not a competition despite what social media tells you.

Stay strong. USA in 2026 is looking like a wild ride.

 

[DStrangelove]

2025 wasn't the greatest year for me to be honest: a lot of missed opportunities, mostly of my own doing due to struggles with alcoholism. 2026 started out rough as I was diagnosed with a rhabdomyolysis after having a seizure at work last Monday and I spent the past week and a half in the hospital. I'm fine now. But it did give me a kick in the ass to finally get stone sober (or at least be able to drink one beer and not crave downing another several) for good.

Here's to a new year with a clearer head, new adventures and getting back into buying records on a regular basis.

I wish you all the best for the '26 as well.

Dear Electrode, my best wishes for 2026! Get well soon! All the best!