Rummaging in Record Shops

Damian in DiscosMono

You can't beat a good rummage in a record shop - a rare pleasure these last ten years given the paucity of them in Bangkok and Beijing. But today Damian Romero, who runs MUTEK Mexico, took me on a tour of four great little shops in Roma. 
The resurgence of vinyl is as apparent in Mexico City as it is in other western cities, to the extent that the four shops I visited dealt almost exclusively in the black lacquer. First off were three shops on Calle Jalapa. The brand new DiscosMono stocks new or reissued left-field releases ranging from Chris & Cosey's reissued Trance to the most recent Tycho album. A hundred metres down the road is Musica En Vinyl which has a more limited but eclectic selection, complete with Tascam quarter-inch tape between a tower of reel-to-reel recorders and a beautiful valve amp. One for the geeks.

Roma Records

On Avenida Alvaro Obregon is Roma Records, a tiny store with a wonderful selection of new & old. Without any persuading from me, Damian bought Eno & Harmonia's Tracks and Traces Reissue and Eno's Lux. Lovely solid, substantial, heavy things the pair - and not cheap either. This shop did have some CDs and I treated myself to Dead Can Dance's 'comeback' album, Anastasis.   
But perhaps the best was last: a fairly bog-standard second-hand vinyl shop back on Calle Jalapa. The type where you have to leaf through a lot of dusty, plastic-sleeved dross before coming across a curiosity which you don't mind shelling out 50 pesos for. I bought The Dream Academy's debut album (mainly because of Kate St John) and a Missing Persons album which I probably won't like but I have a thing about 1984... 
But what really made my afternoon was hearing Peggy Lee followed by what sounded like beautiful distant thunder. On asking the proprietor what it was, he blithely showed me the original 1987 sleeve of The Hafler Trio's A Thirsty Fish as if it was the most natural thing in the world to put on next. Wonderful! 
Now I just have to get into some interesting Mexican music - a tempting prospect which Damian is helping me with.