Last year, sales of vinyl in the UK hit their highest level since 1990. Business is booming – unless your business is Repeater Records, the struggling music shop where charming indie PC game Wax Heads takes place.
For anyone who spent their youth haunting hole-in-the-wall record shops, Wax Heads will feel comfortingly familiar. Illustrated in comic book style, Repeater Records is cluttered, chaotic, and incredibly cosy. Coffee mugs and a Tamagotchi decorate the till, a sleeve with the likeness of MF DOOM’s metal-plated mug hangs on a wall, and a shelf dedicated to fictional punk rock band Sister sits in front of a poster calling for unionisation. As the store’s newest employer, you’ll help every customer find their perfect record. Some of them will come in with an idea of what they want, but it’s your job to find what they need.
Sometimes, this is simple. Our first customer stans this universe’s main pop girl, Mimi, who’s just released a new album. Using arrows to navigate around the shop, we leave the counter to find it. Along the way, we check our in-game phone and discover that we can play original tracks by the game’s artists in the shop – including ‘Unstoppable’, a breakneck electronic pop song by none other than Mimi (or in the real world, composer Gina Loughlin). Head now thoroughly bopping, we find her latest release – identified by its “New!” sticker – and run it through the till. Your recommendations are scored by points: we get the full three in this case, and the happy superfan later tags us in a cheery social media post.
Other customers aren’t as easy to figure out. Tony, who has “cheapskate” in brackets next to his name, doesn’t care about the music. He just wants a bargain, whatever that may be. We skim the shop until landing on ‘Let’s Fuzz’, its artwork obscured by increasingly discounted sale stickers. Each record has a small description next to it, and ‘Let’s Fuzz’ supposedly “mixes the sexy, messy sounds of electronic fuzz with the loinful moans o desire”. It comes recommended “with two thrusts” by critics, so we hold this sleazy record at an arm’s length and drop it into a bag for Tony.
Soon after, a 13-year old girl comes in to inquire about Sister, her big brother’s favourite punk-rockers. She wants to try them out by buying their latest, more experimental album after seeing it advertised in a magazine. Sensing trepidation, we instead recommend their more accessible debut. She leaves happy, which means we presumably made the right choice.
At any rate, we’re not around to see whether she’s thrilled or traumatised, as our demo ends after 20 minutes. In that time we sold plenty of records, helped our co-worker make a metal-as-fuck (see: plastered in fire stickers) flier for his band’s next gig, and made ourselves small as a dour-faced lawyer revealed the business is on the verge of going bust.
Crucially, we also fell head-over-heels for Repeater Records’ punk charm, eclectic clientele, and banging jukebox. Finding the right vinyl is deeply satisfying, and we’re excited to see how that puzzle-y formula is fleshed out in the full game. Speaking of which, there’s no word just yet on when the full version of Wax Heads will launch – but for the record, we’ll be first in line to play when it does.
A free demo for Wax Heads is available now.