One thing that sort of peeves me off right now about US techno buyers in general is the fact that, despite rising costs, most shops still view domestic labels (and especially labels cut here) as "inferior". Unless it's shipped over and pressed/mastered/distributed in Europe, most people will not buy it...period. Even worse, those well-meaning souls here who DO ship their own labels across the pond for mastering/distribution can expect numerous problems (such as massive delays) simply due to the trans-Atlantic nature of the relationship. Two of the tracks I've had released on European-distributed US labels this year were both almost two years old by the time they were released!

I can understand there was a time when this was a logical argument, as for a few extra dollars you got a record that just sounded so much better...but times have changed. Right now Rhythmic is distributing a whole mess of quality labels such as Infrastructure, Pacific Technics, Azure, Enemy and (BSP alert) Beretta Music to name a few, and the mastering and cutting on most if not all of these labels is done by Tim Xavier who is by far one of the most naturally-talented pair of ears for that sort of thing. I think that US techno buyers need to give the hard-working artists and label owners in their own country a fair shake for once, and think twice before buying up everything coming out of ELP Medien while eschewing such domestic distributors.

As far as buying online, I agree. I live in a college town where the local record shop hasn't a clue about what real techno is, and as such their bins are full of the newest trance/DnB with the occasional year-old techno record from some bigger label. Therefore, if I want to stay current it's either I order online or go shopping in Chicago/Detroit...and even then I rarely find what I really want with the latter option. It's a necessary evil, I suppose.