RareKind Records

There are times when I’m just tired of listening to the radio. Especially what’s on «Heart». I just moved to Brighton a few months ago, and before I moved, I had no idea who «JLS». Now, I can’t go a day without hearing the song «One Shot». My life was better when «One Shot» didn’t play twice every morning, eight times every afternoon, and six times every evening. I needed to cleanse my palette and go to a record shop that sells quality, underground music.
What’s great about RareKind is that I’m able to get away from the constant radio play. I’m able to browse through their funk, soul and jazz collections and just breathe a sigh of relief. I can go through their hip-​hop selection and be happy that they have something by «Madlib» or «Brother Ali», and not anything by «Young Money». It’s a great place to just browse through and lose yourself for a good long while.

I’ve been searching for the rare Pixies vinyl «Tromple le Monde», after months of painful perusing through rows and rows of record shop collections, I finally found what I was looking for at RareKind.
The record wasn’t in great condition, but at over 20 years old, I really don’t feel I can complain about that. Equally, at a cost of £12, I was quite happy.
This type of music isn’t really RareKind’s speciality, which made it all the more impressive. I have also picked up A few very early and classic hip hop LP’s here, again at a reasonable price.

Sadly, I had to sell my decks and mixer when I moved to Sweden. Before this there was nothing I liked more than whiling a few hours away in a record shop, searching through stacks of vinyl and sampling my finds on a store’s turn table.
Rarekind wasn’t on Trafalgar street back inn my dj days, but I decided to have a little snoop the other day for old times sake. They specialise in UK/​US Hip-​hop and vintage funk. There are also complimentary genres such as dub step and soul on the shelves. Whilst I was given a general education into the old school roots of funk from a vinyl head flat mate, I must admit that a lot of the records are not directed at an electronica fan like myself.
This being said, there is enough records to satisfy the avid collector who likes nothing more than leafing therough stack after stack of vinyl on a mission for that elusive classic to add to the collection and also for up to date hip hop and dub step dj’s who are looking for the latest sounds to play at their next set. The staff were happy for me to sample a handful of funk 45’s and my old flat mate would have been able to talk ‘shop’ to the guy behind the counter for hours.
If you are unable to get tot he shop they also offer a mail order service and their website would be a good port of call to get a feel of the type of tunes they are offering. Again, not being a connoisseur of the genres, I reckon you should check it out in person if this kind of music is your thing.

A must for deejays and crate diggers, RareKind Records specialises in new and second hand vinyl and CDs.
Positioned near the end of Trafalgar Street, it’s a friendly shop that’s packed with boxes of new and vintage funk, soul, jazz, electro, hip hop, grime, drum’n’bass, disco, reggae, downtempo, dubstep and psychadelic rock. All the records are marked Excellent, Very Good or Good and the prices are reasonable — think £7 for Kraftwerk, £8 for Minnie Riperton and Bettye LaVette.
There’s a deck near the counter so you can check out your records before you buy them and a small selection of brilliant 45s from specialist record labels like Jazzman and Daptone. They also stock slipmats, needles, headphones and DJ equipment — which is handy for those lucky enough to scratch a living spinning tracks!