Shopping guide in Toronto...

While you may find a good selection of global musics in Toronto at, say Soundscapes (and perhaps at the big HMV, where I was beavering away to get more representative titles in stock before quitting for green pastures (quite literally - I work at the front of 23 acres of parkland now!)) there are many stores around town which specialize in particular musical regions that manage to get titles most stores can't get. You may have to travel a ways to get them, but you'll experience something drastically different from the usual suspects.

Here's a mini-rundown of a few of them that I know about....

A1 Ramiy Video Vision (566 Parliament St., take the Parliament or Wellesley Bus from Castle Frank Station)
I had an interesting time at this little shop in Cabbagetown. I came there in search of (how typical) Carnatic Music. The woman behind the counter had difficulty assisting me because her English was not so strong, but no less than three customers eagerly helped me translate my wishes! The one guy tried to assist the woman working by saying something along the lines of "you know that stuff that goes sa-re-ga-ma-pa-da-ni-sa." Soon we were all listening to music on the CD player and chatting. Very much a neighbourhood place, this store carries mainly South-Indian pop/ film music, and mainly newer stuff at that. They do have a fewer older titles... Eventually I left with a CD of Sudha Ragunathan singing krithis, as well as an album of old film duets by K.J. Jesudoss and various female singers. Both were original CDs, and VERY inexpensive. There is also a convenience store nearby which also carries some South Indian music, although I haven't investigated it. Additionally there's Nallur Video Centre (607C Parliament, right at the intersection of Parliament & Wellesley) but, again, I haven't investigated it...

Pars Video - 6083 Yonge St. (north of Cummer, just South of Centre Ave. East Side (Finch is the closest station))
While for some north of the 401 is a tad remote, if you're a fan of Persian music, it's one of your best bets with this store Pegah, and X-O City being there. Pars Video is especially good a fairly wide selection and reasonable prices (most "L.A." (they're made in and around Los Angeles) CD's are $9.99 and CD-Rs are $4.99). For those who do not read Farsi, It's not always easy to find everything so for finding particular artists you may need to ask for assistance. But, the main sales clerk has been quite gregarious and helpful each time I've been in! My first purchase there was a 4-Disc Googoosh set, with which I was given a complimentary poster of the Persian diva herself. Their CD-R stuff is also of a quite high quality, the mere mention of paper labels prompted the aformentioned clerk to say "No, ours are heat-sealed! Paper labels are garbage." Amen, brother! So expect your CD-R purchases to WORK!

X-O City (6123 Yonge St. just at the other end of the plaza with Pars Video, facing onto Centre Ave.)
While the music selection is not quite as comprehensive as their neighbours at Pars Video. It's nonetheless worthwile taking a peek at X-O City.

Pegah Books (5513 Yonge St., just south of Finch Station)
I've never been to Pegah Books myself--yet, although it comes highly recommended by a santur-playing friend of mine who knows his stuff. Apparently there is nary an unauthorized CD-R in sight.

Indian Record Shop (1428 Gerrard St. East. Coxwell Station, bus south along Coxwell to Gerrard, walk west)
Apparently these folks used to furnish the legendary Sam The Record Man back in the day with a selection of Indian imports. Still today, they have an excellent selection of soundtracks, classical music, ghazals, bhajans and qawwali from both Indian and Pakistan. Their stock is well organized, mostly non-CD-R and quite uniformly high quality. They are also quite friendly and helpful. Look out for their extensive collection of Abida Parveen discs, if you're a fan. A bit of trivia: recently I was there and found an LP by chutney singer Sundar Popo. Didn't expect to find that there!


Right next door to it in the India Centre there is also a decent music store with a reasonably large selection, where I've made a few purchases. It's just not quite as consistent as their neighbours, carrying a few more paper-label CD-rs and the like.



Payless Electronics (1340 Gerrard St. E North side of Gerrard (Between Greenwood & Coxwell))
This store is quite bizarre and not really technically a music store. Essentially a junk shop, this store also features cheap DVDs and CDs alongside oversized calculators, cheap umbrellas and off-brand batteries. You have to be careful with the CDs you buy... Some I've found are actually defective. Others may be a lame CD-R edition... But they do have a lot of buried gems in there, mainly older Hindi soundtracks. But at $3 a pop, who can complain!? A fun spot for those who enjoy "digging." The owner once told me that he just gets boxes upon boxes of CDs, without any real sense of what the boxes contain. Yet, despite that, he can often tell you if he does or doesn't have something, despite the disarray. A great place to track down late-70's to mid-80's soundtracks.

Shri & Bros (1843 Lawrence Ave E. between Victoria Park & Warden, south side)
This store has a few hidden gems, but you really have to watch out for the shoddily paper-labelled CD-Rs (bubbles!). I got a really lovely CD-R of Carnatic violin duets there as well as a fairly CD of Jesudoss duets with some nice stuff on it. The prices are very reasonable... I paid $5 per disc.

Dhaka Audio-Video Corner (2988 Danforth Ave., slightly west of Victoria Park Station)
I've only visited this store once. It's right in the heart of the Bangladeshi area of Toronto, between Dawes Road and Victoria Park along Danforth. This store had a large variety of CDs and movies but it could be rather difficult to navigate if you don't have a Bengali helping you out (I did, and even then it was tough!). I found an intriguingly fey 1980's-sounding steel guitar recording akin to the Sublime Frequencies release (but slightly later). I also found some fusion-Baul stuff that wasn't as good as I would liked it to be... too much fluf not enough hardcore baul-belting... although some was nice. The store stocks a mix of actual CDs and burned discs.

Super Latin Music (1088 St. Clair Ave. W, between Oakwood and Dufferin, St. Clair West Station, take the 512 west)
I've only been once, and it seemed to be all about contemporary latin pop music. Not being as tuned to Latin music, as the music of other regions, I don't know what to comment about except that I felt it was worthy of inclusion on the grounds that it is only one of a (very small(?)) few of its kind in Toronto.


Nezahet (3905 Keele St. Unit 4 - Downsview Station, along *at least* the 106 Bus Route)
I've never been to their actual store, but they recently had a stall at a Turkish festival at Dundas Square. There, I purchased a great Selda (Bagcan) album from 1983, and my girlfriend grabbed a nice disc of Turkish folk music. Both were reasonably priced and the Selda was well-packaged and clearly a legit recording... I look forward to going to the actual shop in an attempt to find some Derdyoklar Iklisi albums (even if the staff will laugh at me). And they have way more than just music at the store too...

Minimart (884 Bloor St. W, just a few steps east of Ossington Station)
At this variety store on Bloor just east of Ossington you can not only buy groceries but also get some great Ethiopian and Eritrean music. Unfortunately it's all behind the counter, which makes it a daunting task for those without a shopping list, but nonetheless, you can get some pretty decent titles there. One thing that may appeal to fans of the Ethiopiques series is the Tlahoun Gessesse comp they carry which only 1/3 overlaps with the Buda Musique disc. I also acquired some CDs by Yemane Ghebremichael (Yemane Barya), Bereket Mengisteab and others.

There is also another store just off Bloor on Concord Ave. with quite a decent selection of Eritrean music. The name escape me unfortunately.

Nasr Grocery Store (1996 Lawrence Avenue East, just west of Warden)
This grocery store, in what some call "Little Arabia" (although it *is* just a bunch of stripmalls) has a small music department with some intriguing selections. The prices are a little steep but you may find something worth springing for. I bought a disc of 1982 concert recordings of a nice singer called Magida El-Roumi. Reminded me of a more modern Fairouz. Given their small selection they have quite a range: from Arabic music to some Armenian and Turkish discs. The only issue for someone like me was that there was not that much older discs... and I tend to prefer older music in general. Oh... and while you're there, just got to the other end of the plaza to get some fig pastries at the Ladan Bakery... They're absolutely mindblowing. (If you have a car, too, you may want to visit Hopper Hut restaurant at Ellesmere & Kennedy for some delicious Kottu Roti! If you're a downtowner and make the trek, it's best to make it count!!)

Pannonia Books (300 St. Clair West at Spadina Road, just east of St. Clair West Station)
Even though this is a mere stone's throw from my house, I have yet to visit this outlet. I can safely say, though, by perusing their online store that they do have an interesting collection of Hungarian Music. So, if that intrigues you... by all means investigate further.

Jong Ro Books (650 Bloor St. W , Between Christie and Bathurst Stations)
While the selection is small you can nonetheless get some great Korean classical and popular music here. There is both instrumental and vocal classical recordings as well as pop ranging from recent stuff back to the golden era of trot (teuroteu/ pyongjjak) The staff is knowledgeable and the discs are really high quality, and, consequently, slightly pricier... The upside: you'll never find faulty paper-label CD-Rs here.

Little Burma Variety Store (1278 Bloor St W, just East of Lansdowne Station)
The selection is meager, they're just CD-Rs in sleeves with a couple of words of burmese printed on them, but I did happen upon one really nice CD-R there of sort of neo-traditional stuff. I cannot tell you who it is, or anything. And really it's just a tucked-away box of stuff they have there, but it's only $3 per disc. I must say, I wasn't really interested by the other CDs he gave me. Weird Karaoke-ish Burmese covers of country songs and oldies... ouch. Oh well... to each their own...

Papelaria Portugal (220 Ossington Ave. just south of Dundas West)
Alongside other various items, this store has a decent, yet slightly pricey selection of Portuguese and Brazilian music. There's more than meets the eye there too. Ask anyone working in the shop about particular artists and they'll magically make more titles appear! (photo borrowed from this blog)


MVP/ Master Video Productions (604 College St., at Clinton, 506 Streetcar, or take the Bathurst Streetcar South from Bathurst Station, walk west)
Another place I have not yet investigated, but they specialize in Italian music. Just near the Royal Cinema.


More info on specifically African stores can be found here although I have a sneaking suspicion that it may be a wee bit outdated. It also does not include some stores, such as a newer addition (whose name escapes me) in the Bloor/ Ossington area which specializes in Ethiopian and Eritrean music.

Here is a list of various Tamil Music & Video stores.

Happy shopping and...

Any readers with recommendations, please feel free to write them in the comments!