Philly Record Stores 
specializing in 
Ambient/ Experimental Sounds
 
 
 

See Craig Baylor at Sound of Market for experimental Jazz, Krautrock, deep catalog ambient, space rock, and obscure labels. a.k.a Music is also an excellent resource and I've been able to find nice bootleg krautrock discs there. See Tim at State of the Art or ask someone at the counter at Repo Records for new Ninja Tune, Warp, and IDM. Go to Spaceboy for cd or LPs of drone, lo-fi electronica, bliss-out, and rare new wave Vinyl. 

Turntablists have a choice between Cue and 611, both of which have a small selection of Ambient and experimental beats. Check out Cue's mighty pleasing aesthetic and say hi to Brad, Crasta, Eors and Jugo. Sean O'Neal of Flowchart now works p/t at 611 so go over and tell him you've got ambience in yer pants. Note that across the street in 612, they have used records in the basement.

The Book Trader on the corner of 5th and South has been a good trove for me as of course the various Thrift Stores around town. Also consider going to the Philadelphia Record Exchange for good older vinyl and if you have a car the Princeton Record Exchange should be on your short list.  If you have a specific hard to find artist in mind and you can't find what you've got an itch for here in Philly try using GEMM, an international database of many, many used record stores or the auction lists at Ebay. Good luck.