Salt Lake City Digs

Digging @ ReSpin Records

Over the weekend I took a trip to Salt Lake City to visit the Guitar Center up there for some new monitors (more on that later because they're dope) and ended up finding myself spending a few hours at Respin Records on South Redwood, Taylorsville. Other than Randy's, I can definitely see myself coming back here.

When you walk in you immediately realize there's two separate rooms. In the back they sell used tables and have several shelves containing alphabetical ordering and newly appraised records. First thing I started on was the soundtrack section, which actually had more items than Randy's. The front room was divided up into primarily 4 or 5 sections: Jazz/Big Band, Children's, Soundtracks, Classical, etc., but the main bulk of material was actually miscellaneous boxes. Thousands of records stacked in boxes. What was truly amazing was that although the shelves were bursting with vinyl there were actually boxes stacked waiting to be put onto the shelves. Some of the boxes were labeled "please don't go through" obviously because they all haven't been appraised yet. I was totally tempted to start going through the boxes that didn't have that warning but I was spending so much time sifting through the aisle bins it wouldn't have really made much of a difference.

The majority of records in the front room were basically what you would expect, with gems hidden in between Lawrence Welk, but an entire side of the store was all dollar joints. I was literally too overwhelmed to properly think straight. Primarily I was interested in finding some French and Italian soundtracks on this particular dig, but ended up finding a lot of good Leo Kottke records and loads of other stuff. The people working there were all super cool, and I was treated to some Run DMC as I dug through the crates. What was super trippy was that I didn't even know this place existed, despite it being RIGHT NEXT DOOR to Guitar Center. Later on in the day while hitting up Randy's I overheard people talking about ReSpin and giving them high reviews. From what I could gather ReSpin acquires a LOT of really good records, and from my own personal experience I could readily validate that claim. This is truly a store that does it right, and one in which you could easily get lost in. If you're a serious digger be prepared to spend at least 3-4 hours. Unfortunately I was on limited time and didn't even touch the Jazz section. Next time...

Ambient Abstractions - Audio Terrorism Vol. 2

Also recently dropped was the second installment of the hugely successful free mixtape series Audio Terrorism, featuring tracks from the entire Ambient Abstractions roster: Magus the Great, Words Babylon, Still DOE, Chucklez, White Recluse & Tha Relapz Krew, as well as guest spots from T.R.E.E.S. Productions, Schol@r, & Suzpekt Phade and Ghost of RSR. The album weighs in at 16 tracks of pure fire. Production includes joints from Malakai beats, Excalibur, Words Babylon, White Recluse, Shaun Cass & More.

PEEP IT!

Still DOE - Chill Mode

With all the craziness and dope releases coming out of Ambient Abstractions lately, I completely forgot to make a blog entry about this when it first came out. The homie Still DOE recently dropped his solo record Chill Mode produced entirely by Malakai Beats. The album is 10 tracks and features the likes of Magus the Great, Chucklez, Daniel Dahmer, & Words Babylon. Magus contributes to the mixing and mastering, and the beats span from several years containing a mix of compositions and samples. Overall the album is solid and definitely work copping, a huge evolution in Still Doe's music and a prelude for things to come.