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The fascination with inexpensive vinyls
Mr. and Mrs. Saito, who run rompercicci, both buy a crazy amount of jazz records. They go to record stores every day, buy records, and play them in their store, but their selection criteria are not based on topics or trends. They buy records from their own perspective. They are not buying records based on topics or trends, but from their own point of view. I finally found it at that price, so I bought it,” “I bought a record from this label and it was pretty good, so I bought it because it was cheap,” “The record I bought before was Japanese, but I bought a German one because it was cheap and beautiful,” etc. These episodes are too realistic for those who buy records on a daily basis. I bought it because it was cheaper and more beautiful. It is not about buying popular new releases or rare records with a premium price, but about buying records in the same way we ordinary people do, on a limited budget.
That’s why there are always “not-so-expensive records” playing at rompercicci. The charm of this place is that there are always records that are neither trendy nor new nor premier, but are always excellent. I’m like, “Oh my God, this artist put out a record like this!” “This record is a mystery, but this famous musician is on it! Things like that happen all the time. He picks exquisitely interesting records that are not the ones that everyone wants or the ones that everyone knows. Some of them are albums that I know, of course, and some of them are discoveries and surprises like, “I didn’t know this record was this good. I was surprised to find out how good this record was. The audio system and the atmosphere of the store make the familiar records sound surprisingly appealing.
