A rediscovered love of vinyl by quality-conscious music enthusiasts has made Tokyo’s enviable ecosystem of record stores an object of international wonder and longing. One standout among the city’s countless repositories of analogue treasures is VDS, the Tokyo-born Vinyl Delivery Service’s second physical outpost (the first is on London’s Columbia Road).
Housed in the Skwat Kameari Art Centre, a makeshift collective cultural space hidden under the Joban Line railway tracks that it shares with an architectural office, an art book distributor and a tiny coffee shop, the store doubles as a warehouse for VDS’s online record-retail business – hence the seemingly endless shelves stocked with everything from rock and city pop to reggae and traditional Japanese music.
Some of the up to 9,000 records available for perusal are categorised with labels like ‘earth’, ‘fire’, ‘water’ and ‘air’, adding a philosophical touch to the digging experience. Hesitant to pull the trigger on that rare pressing? You’re welcome to play before you purchase – using any of the store’s five different turntables, which are also for sale.