Sask. may not lose 4 record stores after all, HMV stores slated to close, but Sunrise Records expanding from coast to coast: Earlier this month, Saskatchewan was set to lose all its HMV record stores — but now Sunrise Records may be filling the gap. On the weekend, the Toronto-based independent music retailer said it was taking over the locations of 70 of the more than 100 HMV stores that are closing. Four of the HMV stores are in Saskatchewan — at the Cornwall Centre and Southland Mall in Regina and at the Midtown Plaza and Lawson Heights Mall in Saskatoon. The company hasn’t said which Saskatchewan locations it will be moving into, but says its expansion will take it into all major markets from coast to coast.
Sunrise Records Taking Over Dozens of Closed HMV Stores Across Canada: HMV is closing all 102 stores as of April 30, after the company said it was losing $100,000 a day. Sunrise plans to seamlessly start opening its newly acquired locations in April. “Sunrise has always strived to offer superior service and a wide range of products at reasonable prices to its loyal customers,” Sunrise president Doug Putman said in a statement. “We are excited to bring Sunrise nationwide, and would like to thank all of the suppliers and landlords who worked so closely with us to allow us to be a destination for physical music in Canada.”
New vinyl pressing plant in Detroit launches with Derrick May and Carl Craig releases: Third Man Records’ pressing plant opened over the weekend (25th February) with an opening party selling releases by Derrick May and Carl Craig. The new operation was founded by Jack White (of The White Stripes) and is the first new vinyl pressing plant in Detroit since Archer Record Pressing opened in 1965…Despite Third Man being primarily a rock-focused label, the inclusion of releases from Derrick May and Carl Craig as part of the pressing plant’s opening signals that the team are keen to work with electronic musicians.
This minimal new record player is “just a wheel”: In the last few years there has been an explosion in novelty turntables vying for your affections. We’ve had floating, platterless, vertical and even smartphone-controlled rotating record players, each of which has sought funding on Kickstarter to slake a design demand you didn’t know you had. Such is the current state of affairs that the introduction of a turntable that plays records from the bottom up on a rotating wheel hardly raised an eyebrow. But that’s exactly what The Wheel is promising. Rather than have an external stylus and tonearm, this deck contains all its mechanics within the platter to give the impression of a minimal, spinning record without visual interference. Rather than have buttons on the deck itself, the Wheel is controlled by tweaking the centre spindle and connects wirelessly to your audio system.
