Paul ‘Ralphie’ Connolly’s substantial personal vinyl collection would be the envy of just about any record store. Thankfully for collectors and music fans alike, he’s not keeping it all to himself. In 2020 Ralphie opened Echo & Bounce, a trove of classic and esoteric vinyl plucked from his own collection. Originally based in Winn Lane, Echo & Bounce relocated to Woolloongabba a year later, where a large loft space on Stanley Street became the anchor point for what has since blossomed into a multifaceted community-centred art and hospitality space. Since relocating, the team has expanded to include Nadeem Tiafau Eshraghi and Greer Shannon (as well as a host of other behind-the-scenes talent), who have helped build and expand Echo & Bounce conceptually and physically. It’s now a venue that sprawls across three levels of its heritage-listed site (previously home to the Clarence Corner Book Shop). On the ground floor sits the record store, cafe and dining area in the laneway at the rear, while the loft and basement space are now used to host events that span music and art. Now tethering the entity is a singular purpose – fostering the city’s art- and music-loving community by facilitating collaboration and knowledge sharing. “One the overarching pillars was this idea that we wanted to utilise our knowledge and share that,” says Ralphie. “That’s across everything from the records and the DJing side through to cafe operations and the art of roasting. Anything that we touch, we really want to be able to share that knowledge.”

Echo & Bounce’s bright, high-ceilinged cafe and record store was fashioned and assembled through collective input, with the team’s ideas and wants filtering into the space’s eventual overall look and feel. A multipurpose modularity underpins the design choices, from the timber dining counter equipped with power points to the cushy vinyl listening stations at the street-facing windows. “All of it is trying to be as intentional as possible [to create] a place that you can pass time in,” says Nadeem. “The vibe is very much about creating a space that feels nice to be in, that feels like you’re home.” Guests perch at the bench, pop open their laptops and get work done while enjoying a coffee (Echo & Bounce uses Coffee Supreme for its house blend, available alongside V60, batch and iced filter sips from guest roasters), or sink their buns into a beanbag at the window before sinking their teeth into a bagel, pastry or one of three toasties (a Reuben, a bacon-and-egg, and an oyster mushroom and eggplant option) made using Superthing bread and provisions from All My Friends. As for the records, Ralphie’s initial collection of electronic music has deepened with the input of the Echo & Bounce team – now you’ll find everything from broad genres like house to more specific sounds, such as breaks, dub, jungle, chug, rave and ambient. Though drilling into these labels can be intimidating for newcomers to electronic music, the team is all for helping guide ears to music they’ll love. Pop a record on and listen, there’s no pressure to buy. “There is an internal acknowledgement that record stores can be a bit gatekeeping and wanky – we really want to actively work against that and to invite people in and to be as accessible as possible,” Nadeem adds. “We invite people in and help them understand the concepts and terms that we use, what this genre means and where it comes from.”

Every week, Echo & Bounce hosts an assortment of events, from performances from local DJs and makers markets to art exhibitions and record fairs. “We’ve got the perfect space for that sort type of curation,” says Ralphie. “I think we’d like to encourage that a bit more than it just being a spot for basement dance parties. We can do that, but also these other events have so much more meaning and people come out of that like with a much different take.” This diversification of experiences serves to establish Echo & Bounce a a vital nexus for a local creative community that yearns for more outlets from which it can flourish. “I’d say the majority of this is us facilitating other people presenting things, exploring ideas and giving their audiences a space,” says Nadeem. “We really wanted a community-centered space that made exploring and presenting ideas as risk free as possible.”