Sounds - Venlo

Ok, after much delay, finally here’s the second chapter of this endeavor: ladies and gentlemen please give a big round of applause for Sounds in Venlo!

In past few years I’ve been travelling quite a few times through Brabantia, Limburg and Westphalia and tried to find some nice digging spots along the way.

I would have never expected this area was hiding one of the best joints in whole Europe for the wax hunter. 

Sounds is located right in the cute pedestrian downtown area of Venlo and has been there for quite a while. I know there’s at least one more chapter sharing the Sounds name in the Netherlands (Tilburg) but I don’t know if the two entities are connected in any way. I’ve been told the the Venlo shop is the bigger of the two.

However, back to business. Sounds’ ground floor has mainly cd/dvd releases, books, action figures and some brand new records. To hit the jackpot you need to walk to the back of the store and then up the stairs to find yourself in vinyl heaven. Their extensive catalogue of new and 2nd hand records is very well organized and covers the whole spectrum: from easy listening to metal, from hip hop to wave and then some. Be forewarned that it will take several hours to dig through the whole thing. 

Prices are quite fair and you’ll definitely find some gems waiting for you. Maybe it’s the proximity to the famous Music On Vinyl label but Sounds has the best prices I’ve seen worldwide for their wonderful represses.

Sometimes they do in store shows and the schedule is on their website.

Here come the ratings:

Selection: 5/5

Prices: 4/5

Organization: 4.5/5

Personalized store bag: 4.5/5 (yep and a cool one too!)

Location: 4/5 (right downtown, no car access, needs some walking, parking could be a problem) Parade 66 Venlo

Pano vision from Sounds webiste

What a sight!

K7 art

Map:

More record shops in the area: 0/5 (Nope, none that I know of. To find more wax you'll either need to drive to back to Eindhoven or over the border into Germany).

Internet handles that I know of: Website (it’s in dutch so click ‘openingstijden’ for opening times and ‘instores’ for the shows they do) Facebook or Twitter

Keep on digging fellas,

FxWxR