High Fidelity

7 Record Shops in Berlin

Awesome Tapes From Africa - Crellekiez feels like a fever dream - a serene and incredibly well preserved, cobbled gem shoved up between the madness of Hauptstrasse and the rattling of the S Bahn tracks. Many of the businesses (and the numerous community-focused grassroots organisations) seem to have been there a long time, pushing back against the trend of rapid change affecting seemingly everywhere else in the city.

One of the more recent additions to the neighbourhood is the physical HQ of Awesome Tapes From Africa, a blog that became a label that became an institution, run by Brian Shimkovitz.

For over fifteen years, ATFA has helped bring dozens of African artists to a wider audience, whilst maintaining a refreshingly ethical approach - a 50 / 50 split of the profits and the artists retaining ownership of their own music. The store ‘only’ sells music and merch from the label itself, but if you can’t find something that you like amongst a catalogue of this quality, that’s very much a ‘you’ problem. ATFA releases can be found in other shops across Berlin but it’s better (and cheaper) to pick up something straight from the source.

Coretex - All the ingredients that punk needed to fester and then erupt could be found in Kreuzberg at the end of the 1970s. Dozens of record shops catering to the local scene would come and go over the years, but by the end of the 1980s, a punk mainstay would be founded in the kiez that would somehow resist more than three decades of change.

Coretex Records has been at its current location on Oranienstrasse since the 1990s, just a few minutes walk from SO36 and Franken, forming a sort of Bermuda Triangle / Troika of punk and hardcore resistance. The shop still has the widest selection of punk (and adjacent) vinyl of any Berlin store and one of the most impressive offerings of band t-shirts I’ve ever encountered. Their own-branded street-wear also remains popular with local snotty crustbags and wide-eyed tourists alike.

There was a sweet spot between the regular riots of the 1st of May in the 1980s and 1990s and the damp squib of recent years where both demonstration and celebration seemed to occur in perfect harmony. The Coretex stage in the middle of Oranienstrasse, known as the ‘Hold Your Ground’ stage, was always the most incendiary - and maybe the most welcome - in a city where other genres, other movements are often pushed into the background by the monolithic presence of techno. It’s been a few years since we were allowed anything quite like this in Kreuzberg on the 1st of May, but the continuing popularity of places like Coretex shows that there is still an appetite for punk in the kiez.

Hard Wax - In 1987, art student Mark Ernestus would open up a hole-in-the-wall boozer in a former brothel in a side street of Potsdamer Strasse. Kumpelnest 3000 would become such a success (even attracting Jean Baudrillard at one point….) that Ernestus was able to open up a second business, importing records from the US and establishing what became known as the Berlin-Detroit axis.

Hard Wax opened in December 1989, during a purple patch of techno and house releases from Detroit, Chicago and New York but also on the cusp of an explosion of new clubs in Berlin. By 1991, Tresor and Planet would be up and running and the resident DJs of both clubs would be clamouring at the counter of Hard Wax on the two days a week that a new batch of bangers would arrive from the US. From then on, there have been few institutions that have had as much impact on Berlin’s dance music scenes as Hard Wax.

From 1996 onwards, Hard Wax could be found in an old industrial hof behind Paul-Linke-Ufer. I’m not exactly sure why they got forced out of there but there’s probably something equally as important in that building now, and definitely not some shite that doesn’t contribute anything to the city. The good news is that their new home is in the same building as Tresor on Köpenicker Strasse. There’s a certain poetry in the fact the club and the records shop that helped define an era ended up in the same building 25 years later.

Sound Metaphors - Although Hard Wax arguably remains as significant now as it did in the 1990s, when it comes to both capturing and shaping the zeitgeist, Sound Metaphors just might have the edge these days. The selection is wide open but veers more towards the italo and murky disco sound that has (mercifully) shunted minimal techno to the edge of relevance in the last few years.

Another thing they have in common with Hard Wax is a recent eviction drama - after more than a decade in a beloved spot on Reichenberger, Sound Metaphors was forced out for the usual, tedious financial reasons. Fortunately, a new home was found on Weichselstrasse in Neukölln and the Sound Metaphors empire, which includes a much sought-after DJ crew and regular parties in Berlin (including the recent, mammoth May Day extravaganza), shows no sign of abating.

Rock Steady Records - Sleek, carefully curated stores are all well and good, but sometimes all I want in a record shop is dusty, musty chaos. Nestled deep inside Charlottenburg, Rock Steady Records is the only shop on the list that fits that bill. It’s the sort of place where ‘crate-digging’ is an apt and literal description of your shopping experience rather than just a catch-all term for buying records.

There’s a heavy focus on rock and pop but I noticed that both the small Afrobeat and Industrial boxes I found strewn around the place were packed with gems. It’s been in this location for around five years but as a business, Rock Steady has been around for over three decades. There’s the odd bargain amongst the 2nd-hand stock but prices for the new stuff also seem fair (I picked up a Neu! reissue for 25€). Bonus points for the really friendly gent behind the counter who didn’t seem to mind my dog begging for treats. For the real sickos, there’s a basement dedicated to Compact Disks.

For those who aren’t enamoured by a schlepp out to sleepy Charlottenburg just for one shop, I’d recommend adding a pilgrimage to the nearby Memorial to Benno Ohnesorg, whose murder in 1967 was one of the pivotal moments in the era of student radicalism.

Dodo Beach - Although it only opened in 2013, this place feels like an institution. Nestled away in a particularly gründerzeit-heavy bit of Schöneberg, Dodo offers a wide selection of new indie and alternative but it’s the extensive jazz section that makes them stand out (as well as the ‘Metal Dungeon’ in the basement…). Since the recent demise of Koka36 it’s also one of the few surviving places where you can buy actual paper concert tickets without getting shafted by postage costs.

Bonus points for the top lad behind the counter wearing a keffiyeh and passing out glühwein when I popped in just before Christmas. It shouldn’t be a big deal but whenever I see an older white German showing even the most basic gesture of solidarity for the Palestinian people, I get a bit of hope that this country isn’t totally fucked after all.

Soultrade - I feel pretty reverential about this place, like I should be wearing these little plastic bags over my shoes that the murder-polis have to wear on CSI. In all my years feeding my addiction, I’ve rarely encountered such a well-ordered and spotless record emporium. The lads that run it are friendly and helpful but also vigilant when it comes to the ill treatment of their stock. My mate Dave still occasionally brings up the time he was spotted holding a record in there without due care and was given a lesson on how to handle vinyl like an adult (fingertips only touching the edges and the label). Frankly, they were 100% justified in doing so and it was about time someone had a word.

In any case, as the name suggests, soul, funk and a wee bit of disco is the main focus, but the hip-hop section is unparalleled in Berlin. If there’s nothing new that catches your eye, it’s always worth falling back on a Golden Age staple to fill in the gaps of your collection. If you don’t own the first two Eric B and Rakim records, then what are we even doing here?