Theres this record store in Jemursari Plasa , Surabaya where everytime my parents take me there i will spent time checking wall of album covers. After several times admiring the cover, i decided to spend 21k to buy my first casette. This moment kick started my interest in music and it was also the starting point of my fascination with physical records.
It was Slipknot – Iowa, 21k rupiah worth casette tape. Not the most morally sound choice for a 7th grader, but in my defense its either that or Cannibal Corpse’s Butchered at Birth. The later one i considered to buy just solely by the album covers only, never heard CC or any grindcore bands before. Id surely get a lot of trouble when my parents look at the CC album, so Slipknot was a safe choice. A great one i guess, because i still cant enjoy CC until now.

At those early internet pre-ipod time, the holy place for music enthusiast like me is Aquarius Record Store. In Surabaya, it was located in jalan polisi istimewa. I cannot count how i spent hours and hours just to stroll around looking at album covers, listen to the CD samples and going home not buying anything. My pocket money was not that much but hey its still a good way to spend time.