Vinyl Kitchen is a great shop! Heaps of cool stuff. A real mix of everything. Listening booths are a good set-up: like you’re at an internet cafe. Nice to rest your legs in. Owner was very friendly, relaxed in-store vibe.

Heaps of jazz, interesting world section. Great disco section! Found a killer Brazilian record here that I was surprised to find and the guy in the store even said that he had never seen it before. Vinyl Kitchen is highly Recommended.

Vinyl Kitchen, Lange Violettestraat 160, Ghent, Belgium.

Wow, cool store. They really care. Nice old wooden crates, spacious upstairs loft style. Big on their jazz and rock. Once you’re done flicking, why not take a seat and enjoy an espresso while the resident turtle blows you some bubbles, if you listen carefully I think he’d have plenty of stories to tell about the history of jazz!

Tune Up Records, Melkmarkt 17, Boven IMS, 2000,  Antwerp, Belgium

I read the reviews of this place on Record Junkie  before I made the trip and quite frankly I was put off! Having had the negative experience of being kicked out of a record store in Berlin, diggers comments about this place sounded all to familiar. I didn’t even bother writing down the address but came across it by accident and my curiosity got the better of me so I thought I’d give it a go.

I was nervous from the outset, felt like the store guys were watching me! There was just such an overwhelming amount of vinyl in there, more than I’d ever seen in one spot. I didn’t know where to start. The other thing that made it difficult was that it was so tightly packed, you really had to get stuck in. One guy there asked if he could help me and I thought, this is it, he’s going to kick me out -  but he showed me to the section I was after.

I pulled out some good stuff over the hour I was there. Prices were decent. Eventually my arms got so sore I couldn’t lift them to hold rows of records back as a lot of good stuff was on the upper shelves, so I listened to some of my selections through the store speakers. This is always a little bit awkward I find, but the store guys were interested in my choices, even asking what some were. I don’t blame them, with all the stock in the store they can’t remember everything.

There were some real hard core collectors in there at the time. Flicking super fast, talking mumbo, holding scrunched lists of records. It was a cool place! Don’t be put off. You gotta check it out.

Record Collector, Lange Koepoortstraat 105 2000 Antwerp, Belgium

I’m pretty sure I have the address right… if you catch the train from Mechelen  – which you would pass coming from Brussels I believe – get out of the station and follow the main road that has the tram line on it going into the main city square. It’s a bit of a nonsensical set up of a city in that the main station is almost 30 mins walk out of the CBD or tourist centre.

Anyway, I chose to walk so I could get to know the streets better. This paid off too because I came across this bookstore that sold records (bookshops often seem to be where you find the best records in Belgium). Picked up a rare Afro number and some cosmic 7″s for 1 euro each. Definitely worth popping into.

Make sure you continue up the street and into the main township. It’s really beautiful. Grab a waffle and just sit on the canal and take it all in. Marvellous!

Boeken En CD Markt de Kaft, Kortrijksesteenweg, Gent, België