Three guides to hip, strange, exotic records:

Vinyl Safari

The exotic: foreign, ethnic, tropical, sub-tropical, Latin, calypso, Mediterranean, Brasilian, African, Oriental, Asian, Oceanic...

Odd Pop

Zany old pop: quirky instruments, stereo demonstration, wordless chorus, whistling, spoken, vocalists, personality, beatnik, crime, spy, mod...

The Soul Patch

Hip music for DJs: funk, soul jazz, funky soundtracks, New Orleans, crazy/funky rock, black power, party rap, soul, mod jazz...

Hyp Records (Soul Patch-Odd Pop-Vinyl Safari) unveils the crazy music we:

• compulsively collect
• spin, occasionally publicly
• have reviewed for All-Music Guide
• sell worldwide through Hip Wax

You are urged to use the guides to:

• armchair-explore new worlds of recorded sound
• compare records of a specific type or artist
• find items to look up in the All-Music Guide
• develop a wantlist & shop Hip Wax
• read as our wantlist (see what we want)

Idioms: We collect avidly in at least 100 musical idioms, so any missing favorites may show up soon. Always there are more weird categories and listings coming. Please note that Hyp Records is strictly for your information. Only records listed at Hip Wax are for sale.

Periods & Formats: Most listings are from the Golden Age of the LP record, or the "hi-fi" era of 1955-1975. Select other listings: 1) many earlier LPs, especially 10" and reissues of 78 singles, 2) some 10" 78s and 7" 45s, particularly non-LP singles, 3) very few post-1975 LPs, and 4) almost no CDs. Although not hung up on audiophile criteria, we favor original, stereo, Blue Note LPs amplified through a vintage tube system.

Records: No attempt is made to list every record, an impossibility. Most listed records are rare, significant, fantastic, curiously or beautifully packaged, strange, scary, awful, or some combination of these. Above all, we promote the unsung, the underdogs, the forgotten, the lost, the dismissed, the neglected, the outcast, the damned -- the babies the hippies threw out with the bath water (not that they bathed). Most Hyp Records are at least relevant to a life of soul.

Ratings: Records are rated on a scale from 1 to 10, which is really 2-9, since no record gets "10" and "1" is an abomination. Chief in this overall grade is the sheer entertainment or interest value of the music. There may be two killer tracks and ten fillers, or the album may be uniformly okay. Collectors should scratch and claw to get at the 9s and 8s and not pass up the 7s and 6s. The 5s and 4s are quite worthwhile. Unrated LPs are those we have not yet found -- consider these as our wantlist. Even many of the rated LPs we want again; see Hip Wax to buy or trade.

Reviews & Searching: Many (eventually most) of the listings have been reviewed for the All-Music Guide. We cannot guarantee search results for any particular title, nor can we take responsibility for anything AMG publishes, including our reviews. But many Hyp Records titles correspond directly to AMG reviews, and Hyp Records can be used as a "front end" to the AMG database. (Simultaneous access is possible if you open your browser a second time.)

Data Format: The listing format is Artist: Title (as on the disc itself); Label/Division Catalog#; Year (if two: year produced/year recorded). Please use this format when emailing us with additions. Stereo catalog numbers are listed, if known, for all true, stereo releases. Originals are listed unless only a reissue is known; known reissue and other parenthetical information given as merited.

Objective: Hyp Records exists solely to help specialized collectors find unusual, enjoyable albums. We care less about being the first or only source than about being reliable. We try to avoid going overboard about any one artist or style; eschew meaningless, revisionist buzzwords such as "lounge"; and generally relay data directly from records in hand. Although the mildly commercial Hip Wax is linked, Hyp Records data are added independently and as objectively as possible. (Letting a transient copy of a record influence a permanent database would be unreasonable anyhow.) Hyp Records and all other sections under the Hip Wax URL (hipwax.com) are copyrighted.

Vinyl Safari | Odd Pop | Soul Patch