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Record Store Week: Spacehall

In advance of this Saturday's Record Store Day happenings around the globe, XLR8R has put together a week-long series of features devoted to taking a closer look at some of our favorite record-selling outlets from around the world. Check out the entire series here.

No one can deny that running a traditional record store is a hardscrabble, occasionally heartbreaking commitment in today's tech-savvy times. Despite feverish industry statistics about a rebounding vinyl market (records sales are now said to back at the same level as in 1997), the rate of announcements about independent records stores shutting their doors in the face of diminishing returns doesn't seem to be slowing. Berlin is a notable exception, a place with a curious overabundance of vinyl outlets, from specialist plattenladen to used-record sellers at flea markets. There's no shortage of variety, yet Berlin still has its standout locales, one of which is undoubtedly Spacehall, a shop situated just off a bustling shopping strip in the southern end of the city's Kreuzberg neighborhood. "I think that Berlin is almost the last city in the world that offers several record shops," said Markus, one of Spacehall's now-former staff members, in a video interview last year. "In a lot of cities, it is now difficult to go to a record shop on a normal weekday, buy the vinyl that you want, have it in your hands, and come back home. I think in this way Berlin is affecting the vinyl market, but it is not only the people living in Berlin that like vinyl." Read more » 

Coachella 2013, Weekend One: Winners and Losers

Now in its 15th year, the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is perhaps the US' most iconic annual musical gathering. Between hosting everything from the Daft Punk performance that arguably reignited the duo's career in 2006 to last year's Tupac hologram stunt, Coachella has proven to be a launching point for popular and independent music while becoming a destination for music lovers with a good deal of disposable income and the ability to take a long weekend off (a.k.a. teenagers, college kids, and a certain sect of childless 30-somethings). While much of the line-up is still geared towards rock and pop, electronic music was a bigger force than ever at this year's edition of Coachella, so XLR8R decided to make the trip down to the irrigated desert just a few hours outside of LA. After taking in three days of what the festival had to offer, we put together a list of what we saw as the opening weekend's winners and losers. Read more » 

Record Store Week: A-1 Records

In advance of this Saturday's Record Store Day happenings around the globe, XLR8R has put together a week-long series of features devoted to taking a closer look at some of our favorite record-selling outlets from around the world. Check out the entire series here.

In 1996, New York City's East Village (which was then simply called the Lower East Side) was a much different place than it is today. What's now one of the most desirable neighborhoods in the Big Apple, an area stuffed with high-rise condos, exorbitantly priced cocktail lounges, and an inordinate number of sports bars, was then a neighborhood on the edge. Marijuana was being sold out of bodegas, heroin addicts occupied the benches and bathrooms of Tompkins Square Park, and cab drivers would sometimes refuse to even take people there. This was the East Village where bookstore owner and flea-market vendor Isaac Kosman opened a new kind of record store, which he named A-1. Read more » 

Press Play: Scuba, Floating Points, Locked Groove, Hackman, and More

It was yet another busy week for new bits of audio and video on the internet, and Press Play is here to round up the best of it. We've got remixes, originals, premieres, videos, entire record streams, and more from the likes of Scuba, Locked Groove, FaltyDL, George FitzGerald, Floating Points, Hackman, Teen Daze, Ghostpoet, and Peaking Lights, among others. Take a look after the jump, and start clicking those play buttons. Read more » 

High Five: Lapalux

Following the recent release of his debut full-length, Nostalchic, Lapalux has once again found himself in the spotlight. The UK producer and Brainfeeder affiliate has always been a bit schizophrenic in his musical vision, and while that varied sonic palette is undoubtedly key to the potency of his tunes, it's also left us curious about exactly what makes Lapalux tick. In search of some insight, we asked him to choose some of his favorite YouTube clips for the latest installment of our High Five series. Without question, his selections—which he claims follow a theme of "deep thought, meditative, and inspiring art"—are interesting and intriguing, but it's also possible that they've left us with even more questions about Lapalux and his craft. Read more » 

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