Warming the valves

Listening bar & record label · Shimokitazawa, Tokyo

Put your handon the record.

Twelve seats, one turntable and four thousand eight hundred records. We press what we play — and we play it loud enough to feel it through the counter.

This week’s pressing

02 — This week’s pressing · LF-011

Aubergine Hours

Recorded in a single night at the bar after close, with the room mics still up. Nomura plays the house Rhodes; the rhythm section plays the counter. Pick a band — the arm will find it.

  1. A1Last Train, Shimokita122 bpm4:12
  2. A2Aubergine Hours84 bpm5:03
  3. A3Seat Seven118 bpm3:48
  4. A4Needle Rain96 bpm6:20

Each cue is sixteen bars, synthesised in your browser the moment you press it. Nothing is streamed; nothing is sampled.

¥4,400 Pre-order the LP 41 of 300 left

03 — The bar · B1, 2-chōme

Twelve seats. One rule you’ll actually keep.

We are a listening bar in the old kissa tradition: the records are the menu, the speakers are the view, and conversation happens between sides. Sit down, order something brown, and let a whole album go by.

House rule

No phones on the counter.

Put it in the drawer under your seat. You will get it back at the end of the side.

Hours

Wed — Sun
19:00 — 02:00

Last side goes on at 01:30. Closed Mondays, Tuesdays and whenever the owner is digging in Osaka.

Seats

12 at the counter

No standing, no tables, no groups over four. Six seats are held for walk-ins every night.

Requests

On paper, not out loud

Write it on the card by your glass. Both sides, always. We never skip a track.

12seats
4,800records on the wall
1turntable
0playlists

04 — Low Frequency Records · Catalogue

Pressed for the room first.

Every release on the label is played here before it is cut. If it can’t hold twelve strangers quiet for a whole side, it doesn’t get a number.

LF-011 · 2026

Aubergine Hours

Kazu Nomura & The Late Room

Pre-order

LF-010 · 2025

Tidal Room

Hiromi Sato

In stock

LF-009 · 2025

Counter Culture

Night Crate Ensemble

Repress · May

LF-008 · 2024

Shimokita Rain

Yuki Mori

Sold out

LF-007 · 2024

Warm Valves

The Low Hours

In stock

LF-006 · 2023

Offbeat Geometry

Mika Arai Quartet

Sold out

05 — Record club

A seat that’s saved. A record that arrives.

Members hear every pressing before it reaches the wall, and keep a standing claim on the counter. Cancel whenever — the records are yours to keep.

Sleeve

¥2,800/ month

  • Every LF pressing, mailed flat
  • Liner notes written at the counter
  • 10% off anything on the wall
Join Sleeve

Counter Most kept

¥6,400/ month

  • Everything in Sleeve
  • One reserved seat a month, any night
  • First pick of the test pressings
  • Your request played before 21:00
Join Counter

Crate

¥48,000/ year

  • Everything in Counter
  • A private listening hour for you and three friends
  • Your name on a spine on the wall
Speak to us
Now on the deckA1 · Last Train, Shimokita