New Zealand’s Longboss gets lost in Istanbul, and we reap the benefits. In Turkey, following your nose seems to be a record digger’s prerequisite, as navigation is not easy. Signs in Cyrillic, old men nodding yes to turn left when they are really saying “wrong way son” and the labyrinthine side streets that record stores […]

Large scale thanks go out to world traveler, DJ, occasional poncho-wearer and record collector Gordy Zola who has contributed the following amazing store reviews plus photographs from his recent Euro trip… Zzzzzoltan!! The best shop ever! This place was closed when I first got to Istanbul. When I came back two weeks later I checked […]

This place is round the corner from Vintage and Rainbow 45. Worth hunting down as it has a couple of hundred records inside. I found a Euro-disco LP I’d had on my wantlist for a while but the super cool thing about the store was all the electronics. Walls of them. I don’t know much […]

Whoa! Plakhane is a super nice store. Air conditioning, polished floor boards, great racks, listening table, sweet Turkish cuts! Thought I was never going to find it and had almost given up after a good half hour of fruitless laneway wandering, then I found it opposite a kind of car park. The dude behind the […]

The guy at this store is so nice! He has been collecting and dealing for years and has many stories of his travels he’s willing to share over a complimentary tea. I have fond memories of lying back on the steps in the store (that lead up to a small cafe), in awe of Baris […]

This one was tricky to find (though my internal compass is always off!) Apologies for the dud photos but I didn’t have my camera the first time I visited and when I came back, it was closed. At least we can show what the front looked like… Nice set up in here. Well ordered, heaps […]

Unfortunately the address for this shop is drawing blanks when I Google it. I stumbled upon this place so I didn’t have an address to reference in the first place. It’s near the other  record stores in Kadikoy so you could probably ask the staff for directions. This shop really had everything. Killer stuff and […]

I was super excited to be in Istanbul and have two days to dig. Record shopping is a great way to explore Istanbul (or anywhere) as the stores are in interesting areas. I usually get lost, but this is a good thing. I caught the taxi ferry across to Beyo?lu (the Asia side of Istanbul) […]