When the blues turn to Grey

Let’s start with the main riff. 

The Records of the Year when Jay Amante was born in 1977: Steely Dan’s “Aja” and Weather Report’s “Birdland.” You could say they’re double discs of good omens if this were a Salman Rushdie novel. But Jay has been inevitably drawn to music.

“My eldest brother formed a mobile in the ’80s called Social Distortion,” he says. “I’d listen to their music as a six-year-old kid — The Cult, Joy Division, David Sylvian, Sisters of Mercy, Gene Loves Jezebel. Then in the ’90s, grunge came out.”

Amante was (and still is) both a music and movie fan. In college, he and his friends would watch Pink Floyd’s The Wall, Led Zep’s The Song Remains The Same, Trainspotting, and David Lynch headf*ck movies like Lost Highway. And the beloved common denominator: the kickass soundtracks. Much later on, it would be films like Almost Famous and High Fidelity. 

He got his first turntable in ’98 (Thorens TD 160) and one of his first purchases was — let me Rushdie this by you — “Heavy Weather.” “When I discovered jazz, it was game over. It was an ethereal feeling, life-changing, tuluy-tuloy na ‘yun!”

He bought records in Cubao for P100, even as low as P20. Records were relatively inexpensive then. “Dumami collection ko. Tapos may mga plaka na wala sa CD. Madami akong na-discover na magandang tugtugan. Everything from the Zombies and Ventures to singers like Frank Sinatra. Vinyl was a great help in diversifying my taste.”

Amante became part of an online forum (The Wired State, founded by Francis Sogono) in 2002. They organized vinyl swap meets at the old Blanc gallery in Crown Tower (in Makati), swimming pool area. It grew into the “November Hi-Fi Show” organized by Jay (along with head honcho Tonyboy De Leon, Robert Crespo of 105.1 Crossover, Boy Bustamante who used to own CD Exchange and architect Raffy Santos) at the Mandarin then afterwards at Dusit Hotel. The community grew, vinyl lovers multiplied, a sort of analog renaissance bloomed, and Jay is pleasantly amazed by it all.

“The download culture is great for discovering new bands, but I will champion the vinyl format forever. The artwork, the gatefold album, the lyric sheet — you’ll really go out of your way to look for records.”

Well, Jay opened The Grey Market in 2011 — first as an online shop via www.wiredstate.com, then as a record store at the Bellitudo Lifestyle Strip in White Plains — so vinyl junkies need not set their sights for Hong Kong, Singapore or Japan to score their own aural holy grails.

The Grey Market was conceptualized by a group of friends. Marc Yao is in charge of audio-video hardware; while Robert and Babes Crespo handle design and watches. Jay deals with the analog side of the business — turntables, records, needles, record cleaners, etc. He shares, “Before, I was the youngest in a group of record-collectors, nowadays when I go to the shop and see 18-year-olds with their enthusiasm for vinyl, nakakahawa. I couldn’t imagine my teenage self buying a 1,000-peso record (laughs).”

These days, Jay collects Blue Note records, is fascinated with great album covers (“Sticky Fingers,” “Brain Salad Surgery,” “Physical Graffiti”), raves about his desert-island disc Miles Davis’ “In A Silent Way” (that hypnotic high hat… there is no close second), and believes that with records there is “a sense of ownership.”  

“My dream is to put up a record shop on its own,” Amante explains, “but for now I have to merge vinyl with things that I love — watches, typewriters, anything old.”

His philosophy is simple: might as well go into business centered on what rocks his world — art (Blanc Gallery), records and assorted collectibles (Grey Market); he is also the cofounder of creative innovation firm called Bootleg (www.bootleg.ph) along with friends Paolo Abella and Aaron Palileo.

All you need to do is hang out at The Grey Market — after burgers at the nearby Crave or root beer float at Flaming Wings — and go crate digging: scour the crates upon crates of brand new records the store carries — new titles as well as classic ones. (My first two purchases at Grey: firsts by Jaco Pastorius and Jeff Buckley. Yes, Jay has them and everything in between, even premium, much-desired box sets of U2’s “Achtung Baby” and Smashing Pumpkins’ “Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness.”)

Then in the past few months Grey started regularly importing Japanese-pressed records (sealed pristine copies of Bowies and Eltons and Lennons with coveted Obi strips and an average price of only P1,000 to P1,200… hell’s balls!). Jay would post the album covers on the store’s Facebook page, and by the time you get to the White Plains area, those bad boys would already be spoken for. (I even saw two “reserved” posts for Echo and the Bunnymen’s self-titled album. I guess those guys know where Chris Martin and Coldplay nicked their sound.)

That’s why hunters and collectors have to be really alert when there is still a Steely Dan or Stevie Wonder out there needed to complete their collection.

So, what is your elusive monster? “Tales of the Storyman” vinyl by Boy Camara, Jet Montelibano and Ed Formoso of Dinosaur? Juan Dela Cruz’s almost mythical “Super Session”? A Samba Song by Bong Peñera? The Identity Crisis record? The rumored Miles Davis and Prince collaboration?  

Maybe one day you’ll find that long lost record at The Grey Market. That shiny black circle that might somehow change your life.

* * *

The Grey Market is at the Bellitudo Lifestyle Strip, 79 Katipunan Ave., Quezon City. For information, call 791-8704 and look for Jane. The Makati branch is at UG38 Alfaro Place, L.P. Leviste St., Salcedo Village, Makati City. Call Ryan at +639995689813.