Celebrate Record Store Day This Weekend

This Saturday marks Record Store Day in Ireland and the UK, so if you find yourself at a loose end drop into your local independent record store and build up your vinyl collection. After all, vinyl sales are hitting a 20-year peak and this week Britain’s Official Chart Company launched an official vinyl chart.

Record Store Day isn’t just about buying records though. Some of our favourite Irish bands will be performing in shops around the country throughout the day. For a full list check out the Nialler 9’s guide here. New records, a gig or two and hopefully some sun. Sounds like the perfect Saturday.

We caught up with Aoife Nessa Francis of Irish band Princess to ask her what records have influenced her career and where we should start building a nascent vinyl collection…

Stereolab – Transient Random Noise Bursts with Announcements

Experimental pop songs, endless swirling textures and sociopolitical lyrics delivered in Leticia Sedier’s honey-smooth voice. This album is gold.

Harmonia – Harmonia Live 1974

A minimalist experimental free-form sound that puts me in a blissful trance. The repetitive nature of looping synthesisers and drum machines creates expansive soundscapes that I can never get enough of.

James Holden – The Inheritors

Wild and intensely rhythmic. James Holden’s The Inheritors is my favourite experimental electronic album made in the past five years.

The White Stripes – De Stijl

This was my favourite album when I was 11, and I can still listen to it with the same ears. I was crazy about the lo-fi recording and the trashy guitars.

My Bloody Valentine – Loveless

An extremely seductive vortex of sound. And they formed in Dublin! Loveless is a landmark album and was the soundtrack to my later teenage years.

Princess play Portobello’s Bello Bar Record Store Day after-party. Here’s a little taster on just how good they are.