Obscure Krautrock Anyone? (Intoxica)

Member Name: nilo0901

Product:	Intoxica
Date:	02/11/09 (11 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great selection, well organised, good knowledge

Disadvantages: Over-priced, service with a smile? Ha!

Intoxica is a second hand record shop on Portobello Road near Notting Hill Gate in West London. The area is not short of a record shop or 2 with numerous within walking distance dealing with both second hand and new records and CD's. Of them all, Intoxica is probably the best for those hard-to-find items with a good across the board selection.

The store mainly deals with what some may regard as 'older' genres of music and within this have vast selections of everything from psychedelia through to pre-war blues via surf rock, easy listening, funk, punk rock and everything in between. They only really sell vinyl formats, both LP's and 7" singles being well catered for in all genres. All are housed across 2 floors in a very small but efficiently compact store.

Don't come to Intoxica if you want to get a bargain. You won't. These guys know what they are doing and everything is reassuringly expensive. What you get for your money is of great quality unless otherwise stated. If you see that hard to find psych obscurity for under £10 it probably means it's been battered beyond recognition. £100 + price tags are commonplace. If you are looking for Madonna's Immaculate Collection, look elsewhere, like in the music and video exchange up the road. They may sell it here, but if they do it will be a rare Uruguayan import with a different cover.

Not only can you buy here, but if you're really lucky, you can sell too. Be warned, they are very picky and don't accept anything they don't think they can shift easily or that is extremely rare. In these infrequent instances, you'll get good money for your item so it's always worth a go if you don't mind disdainful looks if they deem you are wasting their time.

As you would hope from such an establishment, service is never with a smile. Ask whether you can hear something before buying it, they will oblige, but rarely happily. Perhaps they get a lot of tourists wasting their time, who knows. If one could open a second hand record shop and be genuinely helpful and happy to be working there, one would be cornering a market and may well clean up.

All in all, a great place for that rare find and a good cross section of genres covered meaning there is something for everybody.

Summary: Great for those hard to find gems