A look back at Record Store Day 2014

A look back at Record Store Day 2014

On Saturday 19th April, we participated for the first time in the annual Record Store Day celebrations, teaming up with our friends at Phonica Records to throw a party that will live long in the memory.

SecondStorey-RSD14

Balearic icon Phil Mison and the fast-rising Dauwd entertained the throngs of exclusive-hunters amassing both inside and outside of the store, before Houndstooth took over the decks for a three-hour showcase. Second Storey, the man previously known as Al Tourettes, opened proceedings with a robotic acapella and veered through an array of rhythmically diverse techno and electro that belied his roots as a drummer, including previews of material from his forthcoming album, due to drop later this year.

ThrowingSnow-RSD14

Throwing Snow was next up, and with the aim of keeping Record Store Day about records, played a contemplative vinyl-only set that comprised folk, drone and downtempo obscurities, before finishing on a track from his own RSD release, 'Mosaic VIPs'. "I want to take the opportunity to play records that I love but very rarely get the chance to play to anyone else," he confided. We have to give Ross extra props for playing through a heavy cold/hayfever double-whammy which we reckon only added to the deliciously woozy nature of his set.

CallSuper-RSD14

Call Super was the final part of the Houndstooth triumvirate to hit the decks, and dug out a selection of house and disco that acted not only as a warm-up for the rest of the event at Phonica, but also his 'Everything Is True' B2B all-nighter with Objekt at Dance Tunnel later that night.

DJStingray-RSD14

The house and disco theme continued in Phonica, as disco-edit maestro John Morales, the party-starting DMX Krew, highly-rated deep house head Leon Vynehall and Chicago legend Paul Johnson all kept the store rocking until 10pm. However, at 6pm the doors at the back of the shop were flung open to reveal a stairwell down to the little-known but truly spectacular Vinyl Factory basement space, which had been fitted out with a Funktion One sound system and a DJ line-up to match. Unfortunately, due to an ear problem in urgent need of rest, our own Special Request was unable to play, but was ably deputised by DMX Krew who completed a programme also including house veteran Chez Damier, electro stalwart DJ Stingray and Sheffield's one-to-watch Lo Shea, who all kept the Record Store Day revellers' spirits high right through until 10pm, when they dissipated into the Soho night with memories of a truly special day that will not fade quickly.

Crowd-RSD14

Check out more photos of the event from Sarah Ginn, Fran Hales and Reenie Wilkins on our Facebook page. We'd like to thank them for documenting the event so well, everyone at Phonica and The Vinyl Factory for the opportunity to be involved in their Record Store Day celebrations, the fabric security staff for ensuring everyone was able to safely enjoy the event, Red Bull and Project Audio for providing the epic sound system and AIAIAI headphones for their assistance in securing the availability of some of the DJs. We hope you were able to make it down and enjoyed it as much as we did!

ChezDamier-RSD14