Stranger Than Paradise Records sits inside Mare Street Market on Hackney’s Mare Street, and it has the kind of carefully chosen identity that makes even a relatively compact shop feel distinctive. Named after Jim Jarmusch’s 1984 film, it is rooted in leftfield taste without ever becoming forbidding, balancing contemporary discoveries with classic catalogue depth and a strong sense of curation.
Background / History
The shop opened on 28 March 2018 after its founders took on a blank-canvas retail space and built the place up quickly from scratch. Stranger Than Paradise was founded by Noreen McShane, Phil Adams and Sonny, longtime friends and former record-shop colleagues, with McShane and Adams both bringing Rough Trade East experience into the project. From the start, the idea was not simply to sell records, but to bring the record-shop experience “back to basics”: strong selection, good service and a social atmosphere that gives music fans a reason to return.
What You’ll Find
The stock leans heavily towards new vinyl, reissues and thoughtfully selected exclusives rather than anonymous filler. Stranger Than Paradise carries a broad spread of genres, including alternative, rock and pop, electronic, hip hop, grime and R&B, funk, soul and disco, dub and reggae, world music, jazz, blues, folk, soundtracks, krautrock, psych, post-punk, ambient, experimental music and African releases. There is also a healthy run of 45s, plus signed editions, exclusives, Dinked titles, books, merch and gifts. Press coverage has repeatedly picked out the shop’s strengths in post-rock and indie, contemporary British jazz and deeper leftfield catalogue titles, which gives a good sense of where its taste really comes alive.
Experience / Atmosphere
Part of the appeal is the setting. Mare Street Market is a mixed hospitality-and-retail space in Hackney, so a visit to the shop naturally folds into a broader afternoon or evening out. Stranger Than Paradise benefits from that footfall while still feeling like a proper specialist destination. The shop’s own outlook places real value on record shops as social spaces and community assets, and that ethos shows in its event culture as much as in the racks. Over the years it has hosted artist appearances, signings and special events involving names such as Theon Cross, David Holmes, Acid Arab, Ultraista and Michael Kiwanuka, and its current events page shows that listening parties and in-store happenings remain central to what it does.
Staff curation is a major part of the shop’s character. This is not the sort of place where the shelves feel random or overly broad for the sake of it. Instead, the selection has a clear editorial line: adventurous, informed and open-minded, but still very browseable. That makes Stranger Than Paradise especially rewarding for anyone who likes discovering records through human judgement rather than algorithmic recommendation.
Why Visit
- Founded by experienced record-shop hands with deep roots in London’s independent vinyl culture.
- Strong focus on new releases, reissues, exclusives and 45s across a notably wide but well-curated genre range.
- Particularly good for leftfield indie, post-rock, jazz, soul, dub, world music and adjacent sounds.
- Located inside Mare Street Market, making it easy to combine record shopping with food, coffee or a longer Hackney stop.
- Regular events, signings and listening parties keep it connected to the living music scene rather than functioning as a static retail space.
Summary
Stranger Than Paradise Records is one of those London shops that rewards anyone who values taste, context and curation as much as stock depth. Its Hackney location, experienced founders and commitment to events give it a strong sense of purpose, while the racks themselves cover enough ground to satisfy both curious browsers and serious collectors of leftfield music. For a record-shop visit that feels plugged into contemporary culture without losing sight of classic vinyl values, it is a very worthwhile stop.
