For the safety of your vinyl I'd also check VTF first. But if your noise is not correlated with music volume or inner grooves, that may not be the cause.
Sadly, even new records can have flawed vinyl due to errors during the pressing process. Such flaws sound alot like mistracking (FFZZZZT!) but are non-correlated with the music. They can happen anywhere on the record, though in truth they tend to affect the inner side of groovewalls more, which tends to produce L channel noise only.
It's beginning to sound like a loose or dirty connection somewhere. Try removing and cleaning each connection in your phono chain (cartridge clips, tonearm cable, phono stage, tubes, etc.)
If that doesn't help, a bad solder joint might be the culprit.
Lots of trouble shooting in your future... :-(
