Official Book Drop! | Thanks, BKMAG! | Brooklyn Release Party Secrets | People are Great | London Calling | New Interviews | Meet the Collectors! | The Vinyl More-therlode! | We Dig You Dig? | Growing Seeds
Fiona here, here to give you the November update from the Dust & Grooves editorial desk. Since the official release, I’d like to say that we had one down day (and a party) before things started cooking up again, and hot! Yet again our brains have been brewing with more mini-series for you, and a rather large giveaway coming your way… Stay tuned for the low-down of the Autumn so far.
Official Book Drop!
After a serious wait, we’re so happy that the book is really real! The North American drop has been a huge success, with the books starting to dispatch and get on the road. No more talk of pre-sales and pre-orders, you can be pre-pared to flick through the pages right now—you can also leave us a shiny review once you’ve enjoyed it! If you already have your copy of Dust & Grooves Volume 2, you will know that it is a very large book indeed, very much worth the 5 years of work that was put into it. If you’re after something a little smaller, then his little brother Portables documents vintage portable record players from around the globe. If you’re into big things, then fear not, the DG box set will exceed your expectations for sure! It includes Volumes 1 and 2, so if you were too young and free, lacking the storage for the first release, you can make up for lost time now.
Thanks, BKMAG!
We would also like to thank The Brooklyn Magazine, who sang their praises to Volume 2, saying that: “The photos manage to be both intimate and incredibly cool, a peek into the not-so-quiet lives of aficionados.” They also noted that “collecting vinyl records has become increasingly popular in the decade since Paz released the first volume of Dust & Grooves.” We’re not going to claim that Eilon and Volume 1 are responsible for this, but it’s so encouraging to see that we’re keeping up with the community, and that more people are keeping up with collecting. It’s great having so many collectors from all over the globe involved in the project, but it’s always nice to be reminded of home, and reminded that we’re appreciated on home turf, thanks Brooklyn!
Brooklyn Release Party Secrets
On Saturday 26th October, we had our first release party at Public Records. Thanks to the amazing venue, all 550 RSVPs (almost double what we anticipated!) were accommodated incredibly throughout the entire bash. We had DJ sets from Leon Michels, Kristine Barilli, Shawn Dub, Johnny Go Figure, Grace of Spades, David Ma, Carter Van Pelt, DJ Scribe, McBoing Boing, DJ Turnmix, Amir Egozy, Mr. Big Happy, and DJ Woof. Guests were able to peruse the book, mingle with DJs, enjoy fantastic drinks, and pick up some lovely DG merch! It was incredibly busy the whole night, ending with a raffle in which we were able to share some treats with friends.
We were very lucky to have a friendly partnership with our friends at Audio Technica donating the Sound Burger and some stellar Bluetooth headphones, as well as raffling off some limited edition DG postcards. Another well-deserved shout-out is to the incredible Ashes57, who designed the brand new limited edition Dust & Grooves t-shirts that also made an appearance at the party, celebrating DJ Mono (monkey for you non-Spanish speakers). Be sure to check them out.
And here are Sammy’s impressions of the party:
“Bustling! Warm! Much enthusiasm! A rare attention was paid to the DJs, who were situated in the middle of the room. Well-designed. Everyone had a strange job or a strange story to share. Everyone wore good shoes. Books were sold, people were kind, friends were made. A spot of spring on a cold night.”
Check out our full photo gallery at the end of this post.
People are Great!
The best thing about these parties is of course bringing everyone together and getting to see sides of people we don’t always see. One great scene we got to see was Eilon meeting the great David Ma in person for the first time. In case you don’t know, David is a fantastic editor and was the chief of editing Volume 2. The pair have worked on this project entirely over video call, and managed to create a stonking book, crazy! Along with close friends, David encouraged Eilon to take a break from sorting everything out and to relax and have fun, even taking on the decks together! Eilon did however draw the line at a speech. Fair enough. Another treat was seeing our new intern Sammy killing it with her natural presence as the raffle caller, giving absolutely great energy through the space. See, the debate team can have real-life useful skills! Finally, a special thanks is owed to Mun, Eilon’s girlfriend, for threading all the final and intricate strings that tied the whole thing together.
London Calling
I’ve gotta be honest though, the party doesn’t start till I walk in. That’s right, we’re coming for you, Europe. It’s time for us lot over here to get in on the action, and I’m pleased to say we’re starting with London—my former stomping ground. I’m super excited to get back down there to get involved with the collectors I’ve been interviewing, writing about, and archiving. This is a great chance for vinyl-heads to get together at the mad-cool BBE Store in Hackney, on Tuesday 19th November to get down to some great DJs. We’ll have books and booze to get you spinning along, too. London is genuinely so easy to get to and let’s face it, we all work from home these days anyway, so neighbors in The Netherlands, Ireland, Scandinavia, and the rest of Europe, get involved if you can. We’d love to see you there, it’s free, but you’ll have to RSVP here 😉
Eilon & Emails
With parties and releases, this has been an extremely busy time. The party was a pretty huge deal, even going over max capacity (we’re the popular kids)! This was great, but meant there was a whole lot of planning, PR, social posting, and logistics. Eilon has been knees-deep, taking on all tasks across the spectrum—from sponsor deals, down to emailing customers back himself. This is his baby! He would like to take the opportunity here to give thanks for the help along the way, particularly to his girlfriend Mun, good friends, and the intern team. It’s great to see we’ve made it more manageable, and hopefully all the more enjoyable.
New Interviews
As always, we have been dropping more long-read interviews from our book contributors. This month, we started with Gustavo Aquino. He told Tee Cardaci that “pagode gave black folks the possibility to talk about love in the ‘hood’” while discussing his ethnomusicological approach to digging for music. Next up, we had the king of audiophiles, John DeVore. Starting by designing and building speakers as an affordable alternative to buying them, which led to the creation of DeVore Fidelity. Most recently, is L.A.’s ‘Prodigal Son,’ Thes One. He spoke to Oliver Wang about how record stores in L.A. “should have been better”, but also that “a lot of L.A. records have a certain intersection of Latino and Black culture that I really love.” I think this month specifically, the interviews have been a real deep dive into what it is to be a collector, and the deeper motives behind this, so be sure to check them out!
The Vinyl More-therlode!
As promised, we are continuing to add to our prize pot every week—which, by the way, currently stands at a value of $1028! We still have nine more additions so start entering, your dreams are almost as big as the prizeload itself! We are really happy to be partnering up with such great labels, audio companies, and of course, you guys to celebrate the end of the year and winter holidays with, let’s face it, a bit of bloody fun! I must warn you that all of my friends have out down entries every week, so we may be looking at a European winner this time round…
Enter the Motherlode here
We Dig You Dig?
So far, we have had two fabulous issues of our new newsletter, with the legendary Yale Evelev of Luaka Bop as our last guest curator. In the next Issue, we welcome London-based DJ Mafalda. She has a really great insight into what’s cool at the moment, I would know from my recent interview with her, so be sure to check her recommendations out!
Growing Seeds
This month, we have also welcomed another fabulous intern – Sammy! She is based in New York and balances Dust & Grooves duties with working as a full-time floral designer and a writer of short fiction. Impressive! About her time at DG she says, “Getting to hear details of how people have crafted these collections, and their experience of them, be it sensory, cultural, or social, has been such a gift. Excited to join the team!”
Till next time,
Fiona, Eilon, and the Dust & Grooves team 🙂
