The Vinylist: With a 12,000-strong collection ranging from synth pop to techno, Long Live Vinyl reader Phil Cooper is clearly your man when it comes to electronic music, in all its many flavours…
What was the first record you bought?
“Minor Threat’s Out Of Step on the label Dischord. I bought it when I was 13, many years ago, before I got the bug for collecting that came when I started working about six years later! Unfortunately, some shit I used to hang out with stole it from my parents’ house when I was about 16. I will replace it… some day!”
What artists and genres are you most interested in?
“My collection is made up of a small bit of old-school rap, synth pop, new wave, dub, experimental,
New Beat, industrial and ambient (a few hundred in total) and then loads of electro, acid house and techno in all its guises, jungle, hardcore rave, breakbeat and electronic/IDM (for want of a better phrase). My Mixcloud page at http://www.mixcloud.com/Phutyle gives a taste of my collection. As for the artists I’m interested in, there are too many. Plus, it seems every week even more come along!”
How many records do you have?
“Currently, I have around 12,000, which I’ve built up over the past 20 years or so, and the collection is still growing. I think there are more vinyl releases that I’m interested in available now than there ever has been before; the problem is, a lot of these releases are limited (300 or so per release), so this constantly drives me to pounce on it if I get the chance – or is it that I’ve succumbed to the power of hype, manipulation and addiction?”
What’s the most valuable record in your collection?
“Looking at cost, according to Discogs, it’s the Aphex Twin Analord 10 binder release, which came with the black vinyl version. In terms of value, as in a record that I cherish above all in my collection, this isn’t a question I can answer, there are just too many.”
What’s the Holy Grail record that you’d most like to own?
“The new Brainwaltzera record allegedly due to come out soon on the fledgling label Furthur Electronix is my current Holy Grail. This release will no doubt be as difficult to get hold of as any of the other releases that have come out on Furthur Electronix (all of which I have missed); they only seem to do runs of 200 records per release.”
What’s your listening setup?
“I listen and mix records on two Technics 1200s, wired to a small Pioneer mixer, which plays out to some KRK Rokit 6 monitor speakers and some old Pioneer speakers via a beefy hi-fi amp. The room the decks are in is box-room size and I’m never quite banging it out, so I find this setup suffices well for listening and mixing records.”
