Latest Zomby 10" Digital Flora\Digital Fauna. Limited release with an awesome cover, so I had to treat myself. Ordered from Rub-a-Dub yesterday at 4.15pm and delivered to me at 10am today! This is the second order I've placed with them. Bizarrely, I'm still waiting for the Zomby\Rustie Hyperdub 12" and Rustie Bad Science EP that I ordered Monday, but as their prices are so low, £1 - £1.50 cheaper than Boomkat, Juno, Phonica and Bleep (more on them in a minute) I'm not so fussed. One of the chaps that works at the shop goes by the name of Jackmaster - check out some of his awesome free mixes here. He also runs the Wireblock label, so I feel like shopping there is a bit more special :0)



Right then, Bleep, Warp's retail outlet. Riddle me this: would you expect to find the latest (boring, I think) Flying Lotus 12" LA EP 3x3, which is on the Warp label, at Bleep to be cheaper or more expensive than at other online stores? You know that's a loaded question right? Experience tells you that if someone's asking you a question that seems too obvious, they're setting out to surprise you. So? Well, yes, you're right: more expensive. £1.70 more expensive to be exact. "Pains" have been "taken" to provide you with the following:

Bleep - £6.99 + £1.50(P+P) = £8.49
Boomkat - £6.99 + £1.49(P+P) = £8.48
Juno - £5.99 + £1.80(P+P) = £7.79
Rub-a-Dub - £5.50 + £2.00(P+P) = £7.50
Amazon - £6.79 + FREE (P+P) = £6.79!!

Seems very weird to me, if not plain wrong, that Bleep should be selling their own (Warp's) products at a higher price than pretty much everyone else (bar Phonica, who I only use as a last resort :0). I thought I'd query Bleep about this and, although I was probably being a pain in the ass, they responded very graciously:

"We price our records in accordance to the dealer / wholesale price that we receive them at. The fact that we are part of Warp bears no significance on our price, as we still receive our goods from an outside distributor before it receives [sic] our warehouse. "

I still think this is odd. Bleep's parent company, Warp, makes them purchase Warp records from a distributor not affiliated to either Bleep or Warp?? This seems crazy to me. Warp are basically doing Bleep out of money by making them pay more for their products. I then thought, hang on a minute, what about the Warp 20 (Box Set), which I bought on pre-order from Bleep for £85 (plus P+P)? That is now on retail for:

Rub-a-Dub - £115
Boomkat - £110
Phonica - £109 (FREE P+P)

Bleep are obviously getting a massive discount on this from Warp, which is what I would expect. Bleep's answer:

"The Warp 20 (Box Set) is a unique product and exceptional case and has only [sic] been the only product this year where we have not gone through a distributor. This product and the quantity manufactured has actually been made specifically to the amount of Pre-Orders made on our site and so Bleep's role played a crucial part in this decision before an external distributor was brought in for retail distribution."

That's me told then! ;0)