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Platypus Records is literally holding back the tide in Amsterdam. Located at number 45 Zeedijk (the name means ‘sea dyke’) it sits on a street that borders the IJ waterfront in the city’s Centraal area.
It’s not just the sea that threatens to overwhelm the shop, though – it’s the flow of second-hand vinyl, coming in from everyday collections, private collectors, and even other record shops in the city.
Platypus is not a huge place – it majors on the cosy, friendly vibe – but it manages to stock a wide variety of unusual records at very reasonable prices. You can find anything from the more commonplace rock, funk, soul, disco and hip-hop, through to library music, local Dutch and Southeast Asian records. There’s even a smattering of country and classical, which some used record shops are known to turn away.
‘Is there anything you don’t stock?’ I ask the softly-spoken Raoul, Platypus’ co-owner along with his high-school pal and DJ partner, Bas.
‘I wish I could say that we don’t sell this or that. But sometimes people come in, almost wanting to throw away their records, and so we think, “Well, let’s give it a try”.’
This isn’t to say Platypus sells any old vinyl – what’s in the racks is clearly curated by Raoul and Bas. But it does speak volumes about the open-minded selection you'll find in here.
‘For every record, there's somebody out there – a home for every record,’ says Raoul, philosophically. ‘So I respect them all.’
‘Of course, we can’t keep everything. Often we’ll give stuff away that we don't think will sell. Otherwise you cannot even walk in here! There are a few other record stores in Amsterdam where you can only just open the door. It’s way too much. They never throw anything away!’ he laughs.
Hunter-gatherers
It’s not just vinyl you’ll find in Platypus – there’s also a decent-sized rack of CDs. And it’s got some interesting cassettes – often hard-to-find mixtapes from back in the day, or newer mixes and demos that have been produced as a limited test run of 30 or 40 tapes.
There are loads more cool collector bits dotted around the store – including a thin slice of Bas’ personal collection of portable record players (he’s featured in Eilon Paz’s beautiful new book, Portables, an homage to the serious crate-digger’s favourite accessory). There’s also film memorabilia, action figures, badges, tape recorders and a 1980s Nintendo NES, for the full retro vibe.
‘The Dutch are collector people,’ Raoul points out. ‘I think it’s still there from the hunter-gatherer times, because the Dutch are really good at gathering things.’
It’s an interesting cultural observation, but the hunter-gather instinct probably holds true for most record collectors. Anyone who enjoys collecting things could spend ages in here taking in all the quirky ephemera as well as the vinyl.
The birth of Platypus
‘The store is also like a little look in our personal collection,’ Raoul tells me. ‘Bas and I started out with a radio show about 15 years ago, and we were always collecting records, grooves, tunes to put in the show. And we never stopped. We’re always looking for offbeat and weird stuff – searching for cool breaks, but also whole tunes, to play.’
So the shop came about from the musical connection between these two high-school buddies, who still produce a radio show and DJ at clubs and festivals in the Netherlands and abroad.
They dabbled with selling boxes of records at fleamarkets and record fairs, and even had a restaurant two doors down from the shop, cooking Asian food with a small vinyl bar inside, before deciding to go all in with Platypus six years ago.
‘A friend of ours had an office here, and he was like, “This could be a really nice record store. Do you want to put your records here?” It was a no-brainer for us. We said, yeah, absolutely, let’s do it! So we build it up from there, starting off with just a few crates.’
‘It was the perfect time to do it. We were like, “Hey, maybe it’s time to chill out, get out the heat of the kitchen and play some records again.” That was the best decision. We love it here.’
'Fire’ stock and Asian psych rock
Raoul and Bas’ love of finding offbeat tunes and interesting breaks they can use for DJing also extends to the shop’s customers. I ask Raoul what sells well, and he says that ‘rare 90s boom-bap and promos, they fly out in a day. It’s fire, all that kind of stuff. But it seems it’s all the same for jazz, funk, rock, homemade… people just go for it.’
There’s some reggae in store, but he says it’s harder to find in the Netherlands now. ‘Reggae’s harder since corona and Brexit. We had a lot of mates from the UK who used to come with boxes of it. And there’s this huge local record fair every year – Utrecht – but that was a disaster for a lot of collectors, because they would bring a whole collection to sell and then had to pay tax on it, whether they sold anything or not. So the sellers didn’t want to come to Holland anymore… It’s coming back again now, bit by bit, which is good.’
Another thing that’s hard to find, but that you can expect to track down in Platypus, is Southeast Asian music. It’s a passion for Raoul.
‘I love music from Asia, yeah – from West Java, Sunda music, also Thailand. I listen to a lot of Ethiopian jazz, and realised that it’s quite similar to Sunda, melody wise. So yeah, when I heard that, it was like, “Yeah man!” You can mix it really well into DJ sets, so we play it a lot in on our radio show or at parties. We have a big Indonesian community in Holland, going back to colonial times, and they brought all this cool music... Some of it is really sweet “grandma music”’ [laughs]. ‘But I’m into the more Hendrix-style, psych-rock kind of stuff.’
Famous diggers and launching a label
I notice there are a few signed records up on the top racks. It’s hard to make out some of them, so I ask Raoul who’s been getting busy with the Sharpies in store.
He reveals that legendary hip-hop DJ and producer, The Alchemist, is something of a regular. ‘It’s like a second home for him here,’ Raoul beams. ‘I met him several years ago, when we were both digging for samples. Then he said, “Oh, you have a shop?” So he came in a few times, then he brought his friends. One day I look up and [Brooklyn rapper] Talib Kweli is standing in the shop with him, which was kinda cool.’
‘So yeah, we get a few US artists coming through – we’ve had Roc Marciano and Action Bronson in too, and we do in-store collaboration events and signings. It’s good fun.’
Alongside these events with established artists, Bas and Raoul have also started their own label, Penossi Records, which you can check out on Bandcamp.
‘It’s pretty eclectic stuff,’ Raoul says. ‘One guy, a friend, he was an architect, but didn’t know what to do during corona. But he found a drum machine in the thrift shop, and a synth, connected them together and made an album under the name De Kraters. When I heard it I was like, “Man, this is just amazing!” So we did a tape, had a little in-store here… sold out of the tape and now we can actually can press the records.’
Launching a label seems to be a fitting way for these two chilled and congenial record enthusiasts to complete the vinyl lifecycle of making, pressing, selling, buying, spinning. But most importantly, they know that each and every record will find its rightful home... eventually.
Run-out questions
Do you remember your first record?
Raoul: ‘It was actually the records of my parents. They gave me Bob Marley, Supertramp, The Rolling Stones, and the whole 80s thing... I always went to the local library, too. Back in the day they had a vinyl section. There were a few guys who worked there, and they would ask what kinda thing I was looking for. So they recommended me some sick stuff, which I’d tape and listen to later. I discovered a lot of new records that way as a teenager.’
Coolest record in the shop right now?
‘I really love the Yanti Bersaudara album up on the wall. It’s a reissue of a classic 1970s Sunda/psych album, and it’s amazing.’
‘Also, some friends of ours did a reissue from this guy [gestures to record, above], Pieter Verlinden. He did some massive soundtracks back in the day. And they got a lot of his cassette tapes of unreleased stuff. It goes from jazz to fusion, and is really cool, man.’
Do you sell online too? ‘Yeah, we’re on Discogs and sell our own Penossi records on Bandcamp too.’
What was the best recent gig you went to?
Raoul: ‘I think it was the [Dekmantel] Selectors festival in Croatia… it was just a beach full of people in bathing suits having an amazing time. It’s a really nice spot. I think from June to September, in the same place [Tisno], they have a different festival every week.’
Sleevenotes
Where to find it
Platypus Records, Zeedijk 45A, 1012 AR Amsterdam, Netherlands
Open every day, 12-8pm
Online
Yet another great record shop story!
"... getting busy with the sharpies... "!! Respect!
adding this to my list!