Just south of Kottbusser Tor, Sound Metaphors has carved out a place as one of Berlin’s essential record stores. It’s a hub for DJs, drawn to its carefully curated selection of bold disco, house, and electro cuts, alongside rare reissues and forgotten gems. Founders Nemo Ripoll and Castro Moore, both DJs and party promoters, have spent the past decade shaping its identity. It has become an extension of their refined taste and love of good dance music – something that has brought them behind the decks of some of Berlin’s biggest clubs and across the world.
As Sound Metaphors marks 10 years, it faces an uncertain future. In a city where cultural spaces are increasingly under pressure, the store’s next chapter is unclear. Fresh off an EMIL Award for being one of Germany’s best record shops, Ripoll and Moore sat down with The Berliner to reflect on their journey and discuss what comes next.
Congratulations on 10 years of Sound Metaphors. Take us back to the beginning. How did the store come about, and what was it like getting it off the ground?
Ripoll: We knew each other from DJing together beforehand, and in 2015 we decided to join forces with this record store project. The space here used to be owned by an accountant, so it took about a year and a half to redesign everything. We worked with Studio Karhard, an architectural company that has also worked with Berghain. Really, in the beginning we had zero experience selling records, we were just DJs, so along the way there were many mistakes.
Our best party was playing at Lab.oratory on New Year’s. We played there for 18 hours.
Moore: We started it out of love of the music, and the initial idea was that it would be by DJs, for DJs. There’s already a pretty big market for vinyl in Berlin amongst DJs, but for us personally what really gets us out of bed in the morning is the more organic leaning stuff. The music that is less synthetic, with less machines. Something with more human touch.
Berlin is packed with record stores. How did you carve out a distinct space in the scene?
M: I feel like Berlin is the unspoken techno capital, so there definitely was a gap in the market for more organic music, for disco and stuff like that. Selection-wise, we’re definitely more ambient, disco, Balearic, Italo… You don’t really see that in the other shops with so much emphasis.
Looking back over the past decade, what have been some of the standout moments?
R: We had a lot of really good parties which really says a lot about the community we’ve built around the shop. A lot of the May Day parties were really special. Our best party was playing at Lab.oratory on New Year’s. We played there for 18 hours.
M: We also won the EMIL Record Store of the Year award, which was pretty cool and rewarding. It definitely gives us some reassurance to what we’re doing.
You’ve had some well-known faces pass through the shop. Any memorable customers?
M: We have Jack Danzey from Australia, he’s our biggest customer. But we also sold records to people like DJ Harvey and Marcel Dettmann, a lot of local underground DJ heroes pop by every now and then. Maybe we should start a picture wall of our famous customers like they do in the Italian restaurants.
Your reissue series has unearthed some real gems. How do you go about finding and releasing these records?
R: With the reissues, it is just about finding music that really speaks to us personally and is also in demand. It’s a lot of detective work, and having long talks with the rights owners, and dealing contracts. Each record has a different story.
M: I think our biggest seller so far has been Mabsouta by Simone. It’s an Arabic, slow house cover version of Suzanne Vega’s Tom’s Diner. It was one of the first records we did. It was only available on CD before.
Running an independent shop comes with its own set of challenges. What have been the biggest hurdles over the years?
M: I think we can all agree that no one goes into this with the idea of making big money. When you start something as a passion project, it’s hard to think about it as a business, still trying to learn this. Navigating German bureaucracy is really difficult, I think it’s just really unfriendly towards small businesses here. We’ve always struggled with the Finanzamt.
R: The price of everything has gone up now as well. I remember selling at a store price of €8.50. Now it’s about €15. The raw materials, fuel prices, mastering, cardboard… Just about everything is more expensive. Vinyl is now becoming a luxury item. But we still release more every year. It used to be just us two working the shop, now there’s 10 of us, so we’re growing.
We started it out of love of the music, and the initial idea was that it would be by DJs, for DJs.
You’re facing an uncertain future. Can you talk about what’s happening with the store’s location and what’s next?
R: We have to move the shop this year. It’s the end of our contract. When we first moved in, it was kind of cheap, but now they’ve decided not to renew our contract. We still haven’t found a new space and we have until July. We don’t even know if we’re going to continue this project. Maybe we should end on a high note? We even asked for an extension until the end of the year, but it doesn’t look promising.
M: It’s hard to find somewhere new and now it’s so much more expensive. I feel like the cost of renting shops in Berlin is now similar to that of London. We have a lot of records here to move as well. We knew we had to move out eventually… We’ll see what happens.
Berlin’s nightlife and music scene are constantly shifting. With club closures and rising rents, how do you see the city changing for artists and spaces like yours?
M: On one hand, I think there’s always been a bit of media sensationalism around this topic, like with the highway [A100] closing clubs and all, we’ve been hearing about this for years now, but at the same time I think there will always be a demand and new spaces opening here and there, it’s just change!
- Visit the Sound Metaphors record store at Reichenberger Str. 152, Kreuzberg, check out their online shop and follow them on Instagram.
