Holt Vinyl Vault

23/06/2026

To celebrate one's arrival in the Leith sunshine, my favourite cut from a truly classic LP x

Provided to YouTube by Parlophone UKSean · The ProclaimersSunsh...

23/06/2026

A band I love, singing about dark things that happened in a place I love. A pleasure to pass through it again last week. On now to the band's home, Edinburgh. See you Saturday x

Provided to YouTube by Union Square Music1692 (Glen Coe Massacre)...

20/06/2026

The only thing that could make this better would be to be listening to Ivor Cutler reflecting upon life in a Scotch sitting room. Meanwhile, hundreds of miles south, we are open today, thanks to Serene Sarah. I'll see thee next Saturday.

13/06/2026

In other words, this is my last day here for a fortnight. Serene Sarah will open up for ya next Saturday. You lucky people! I'm going where the sun keeps shining, through the pouring rain....

13/06/2026

Poor Performer, aka Simon Rivers [ex Last Party] offers a poignant commentary on the current football jamboree. Last Party will be featured in next Postmaster Flash book and Poor Performer is heading our way, to The Control Tower (old North Creake Airfield) in October. Can't wait!

10/06/2026

This arrived by chance last week. What a great record. Love the reference to Elvis Costello. The legendary They Must Be Russians on the other side too. What a time to be alive!

Joe 9T & The Thunderbirds - Joe 9T Theme(1979) New Wave - Punk 197...

07/06/2026

Playing right now. Here till at least 3, dudes! X

06/06/2026

Close of play on a wet one but I'll be back tomorrow for the Sunday Market, should you be around x

05/06/2026

Unfortunately, there is quite a bit of this that I recognise from much personal and sometimes bitter experience...

For a long time, buying a brand new record felt like the safe choice. The thinking went that a sealed album would arrive flat, clean, and ready to play, while used copies carried all the risk. That logic is starting to fall apart.

Buyers are now sending back expensive albums for the same flaws they once blamed on secondhand bins, and the returns are piling up fast.

One collector on Discogs admitted he has wanted to return roughly half of everything he bought this year. Even trusted audiophile labels and premium reissues, including releases that normally sell for well over fifty dollars, are landing in that same stack of complaints.

The reviewers raising the alarm are not casual listeners either. Some are seasoned critics who have spent years documenting exactly what they hear, and they are pointing to specific defects showing up straight out of the shrink wrap.

What they have traced it back to, and why spending more does not buy you out of it, points at something happening inside the plants that the labels would rather not talk about.

Full story in the comments.

04/06/2026

Fascinating. My chat bot pal tells me that in 1974 Lebanon was approaching the end of a period of relative peace, becoming for a while "the Paris of the Middle East". This Elias Rahbani record is an intriguing blend of proto disco with primitive, wonky synths and a deeper souk vibe. A great listen.