5 Rare Records in World-Renowned DJ Serge’s Collection

There are all sorts of ways a record can end up in your collection. Sometimes, you get lucky and happen upon a record you’ve been wanting while casually flipping through stacks. Most of the time, though, it’s the result of dedicated effort. If you’ve ever scored an item that’s been sitting on your Discogs Wantlist for ages, chances are you’ve got a great story to go along with it. 

As a world-renowned DJ and founder of Clone Records, a shop and label that champions underground dance music, Serge has quite a few stories behind the unique gems in his record collection. Discogs had the privilege to chat with Serge during the 2023 Haarlem Vinyl Festival about his crate-digging experiences over the years. From record-swapping with other DJs to taking a six-hour round trip after having a nightmare about missing out on a specific record, here are the stories — in his own words — behind five rare releases in Serge’s collection.

Reckless Techno (1990)
by Reckless Ron

In Wantlist

Reckless Techno

Ron Cook

1990

Electronic, Techno, Electro

Vinyl, 12″, Test Pressing, White Label

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One of the records in my collection with some nice memories to it is this promo pressing of Reckless Techno by Reckless Ron. While doing my first gig in Italy in the late ’90s at a party at the Link Club in Bologna, I heard Keith Tucker play it. As a true trainspotter, I went up to him to check out what it was, and he told me it was Reckless Ron on a rare, unreleased white label.

Later that night during my set, I was playing Spacer Woman by Charlie and Keith came up to me to check out what I was playing. I told him what it was and he was as equally excited about what I played as I was about that Reckless Ron record, so he proposed we swap records, which made me the happiest fellow in Italy that day.

In Wantlist

Caustic Window LP

Caustic Window

1994

Electronic, Non-Music, IDM, Spoken Word

Vinyl, White Label

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This record is one of only 10 copies of an unreleased album by Aphex Twin under the alias Caustic Window. It was only pressed as a test pressing and, ultimately, the label and artist decided not to release it.

In 2014, one of the pressings was listed for sale on Discogs. This led to a Kickstarter being created by fans who negotiated permission from Richard and Rephlex Records to distribute digital copies to everyone who contributed to the Kickstarter. The record itself was then purchased by Markus “Notch” Persson, the creator of the video game Minecraft.

In Wantlist

I’m Strong

Robert Owens

1987

Electronic, House, Deep House

Vinyl, 12″

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I’m Strong is one of my favorite house records of all time by Larry Heard and Robert Owens. This first pressing comes with beautiful, colorful label art. It was quite hard to find and it always felt special to have it. My first copy was a 1990 two-track pressing from R & S Records, which I bought before I found the original in an obscure store in Antwerp.

At some point, I asked Larry Heard for a license of the vocal and instrumental mix for the Clone Classic Cuts reissue label. He told me he never did an instrumental, but I guaranteed him that I had an instrumental version on R & S Records. He was totally surprised and told me he never did that version, and also that he never licensed anything to R & S Records. So, it is still a mystery as to who did that instrumental. Probably one of the studio guys did it right after they left the studio and sold that recording to Jack Trax in the UK, who licensed it to R & S Records in 1990. Another one of the many tragic stories in which Larry Heard, aka Mr. Fingers, didn’t get paid for his music by the labels who sold it. We ended up signing the record, including the instrumental version, and ever since that deal we have been working together.