A
record store and
mail order business based in
Turku,
Finland.
Mind Records is the number one retailer of "underground" electronic music and DJ equipment in Finland. It was founded (and is still operated) by Marko Laine, a well-known Finnish DJ and musician. Mind initially worked as a pure mail order business, but opened a shop in Turku some years ago. A second one was set up in Helsinki, but it disappeared very quickly, apparently because of having too much competition nearby.
Mind's catalog features music from numerous genres. More or less all the important sub-categories of electronic music are represented, from typical trance to experimental minimalism. The selection isn't limited to pure electric sounds, also offering jazz, soul, hip hop and so on. In addition to importing vinyls and CDs from all over the world, the firm also work as a distributor for several Finnish labels.
The DJ equipment lineup contains the essential turntables, cartridges, mixers, headphones et cetera, from well-known brands like Technics, Pioneer, Vestax, Sennheiser and Ortofon. Labels' T-shirts and other merchandise are also available to purchase.
Back in the day, Mind sent a hard copy of their catalog to its customers on a regular basis. Nowadays an improved version of this service is naturally offered as E-mail, sending updates on new arrivals almost daily.
Like with all Finnish import businesses, Mind's prices can't be described as being low. When it comes to the most expensive equipment and accessories, you can most likely save a lot of cash by ordering them from abroad yourself (inside the EU, at least).
Mind Records is also a
record label, but since
1994 it has only had three releases:
Mind-01
Goto - Sweets
12" | 1994
by Marko Laine
Mind-101
Kaktus - A
12" | February 1997
Mind-102
1. Piiri - Jarru EP
12" | September 1999
by Ilpo Väisänen of Pan sonic
A sub-label called
Hotshot was formed in 1999, releasing
straightforward monotone techno from Finnish artists.
Contact Information
Mail Order
P.O. Box 101
FIN 20521
Turku
Finland
Shop
Linnankatu 10
Turku, Finland
Phone
+358-(0)2-2519596
Fax
+358-(0)2-2519496
E-Mail
shop@mindrecords.com
WWW
http://www.mindrecords.com/
(as their site isn't very user friendly, I recommend downloading the entire catalog as a text file from http://www.mindrecords.com/mindrec.txt)
Information from Mind Records' home page, http://www.sci.fi/~phinnweb/ and personal experience.
Update - July 27, 2001
From the start of August, Mind Records only works as a record label. The distribution of records and equipments have been divided into two new companies, Stereofonica and Elektroni.
The new websites can be found by adding "www." and ".com" around you-know-what.