Wandering through Capitol Hill often leaves one asking: what IS that sound? Is it the dulcet drawl of smooth electronic jazz? Could it be the haunting howls of experimental noise? The clattering cacophony of four straight hours of western region bird songs?! Any of these auditory quandaries will lead one right to Wall of Sound Records, Capitol Hill’s home for unusual music. 

Wall of Sound was born in Belltown in 1990, when original co-owners and founders Mark Sullo and Eric Hoffman opened the store inside of the Art In Form bookstore at Second and Bell. The store started out as a single wall of records, which naturally led to the name “Wall of Sound.”

“There’s a lot of other references to the name in music history, in particular, Phil Spector made the wall of sound approach to his recording methods that became sort of a famous term, and a lot of people thought that’s where we took the name, but that actually was because of the physical limitations of the space within the store,” Sullo said. 

Since its conception, the store has focused on building an eclectic and carefully cultivated collection of music from across the globe, making it a hot spot for Seattle’s music community. When Sullo and Hoffman sold the company to Jeffrey Taylor and Michael Ohlenroth in 2002, Taylor had already been curating the Japanese noise section as an employee. 

To this day, Wall of Sound offers genres ranging from spoken word to Arabic folk noise to space-themed disco to German punk pop to blues.

“We love music and our customers love music, and it’s fun to turn people on to things that maybe they haven’t heard before. Folks will come in and they get very excited about the breadth and depth of what we have, even though we’re a very small shop, so people who are adventurous listeners and adventurous in their music habits really enjoy coming in here, because they’re probably going to find something that will interest them,” Taylor said. 

Despite its esoteric stock, the store is far from intimidating, due to its small and well organized space. Large windows cast sunlight across CDs and vinyls neatly arranged by hand-labeled sections, while every wall houses rows of records, staying true to the business’s namesake. Some albums have notes on them describing the tunes inside.

The store also stocks zines, cassettes, VHS tapes, and posters, and is known for offering more than fair prices—a rarity in vinyl shops —with cardboard boxes of records labeled “cheap” and a case of $1 CDs by the entrance. The low price doesn’t indicate a lesser quality however, as I discovered upon purchasing the $3 1966 compilation record “Would You Believe that These Mild Mannered Songs of Yesteryear are Really SUPERCAMP!”

Currently, the only two working in the store are Taylor and Ohlenroth, known for their palpable passion and willingness to provide recommendations to customers based on their tastes. Long-time Seattle residents recall Wall of Sound as a fixture in Seattle’s music community for the past thirty-five years. The store has even served as an art gallery and a live music venue. 

Peter Larson, lead field specialist at Seattle University, appreciates the opportunity to discover  music through the timeless art of finding oneself inexplicably drawn to an intriguing vinyl on the wall.

“I like being physically involved, like flipping the record, listening for when that album ends. I love reading, drinking coffee and listening to records in the morning. That’s how I want to spend every Saturday and Sunday morning. It’s tangible,” Larson said. 

So let your astute ears lead you to the corner of 12th Avenue and Pike Street in Capitol Hill. Perhaps we can all learn to follow our rhythmic hearts straight to the best sounds around the Sound.