Editorial Notes | December 2023

Hello at last from the Editorial Desk!

I’m Skye, a Dust & Grooves Editorial Intern and music nerd through and through. After a long hiatus while super busy with The Vinyl Nomad photo tour, we’re back with some thrilling updates.

Eilon’s ambitious, worldwide Vinyl Nomad tour has come to a close. In short, it was an absolute blast. Two months of daily travels, meetings, photo shoots, sleeping in recording studios, diving into dark vinyl basements, trains, cars, and airplanes—plenty of adventures and, most importantly, top-quality material for the upcoming Volume Two book.

Highlights include (and are in no way limited to):

• With Massimo di Lena of Nu-Genea as our tour guide, finding ourselves facing a death threat at a flea market in Naples, Italy
• Italian library and soundtrack exploration in Rome and Milan (preceded by delicious limoncello shots)
• A shoot with DJ Daniele Baldelli, who had a surprising Cat Stevens album containing an electronic track, followed by Eilon’s birthday toast in Cervia and Cattolica
• Interviewing Francis Falceto in Normandy—creator of the Ethiopiques series, an inspiration for Eilon when he was young
• An intimate shoot with Lefto in Brussels, who was open enough to remove the plastic sleeves from some of his records
• Receiving a personalized Tony McDermott print in London
• A long-awaited meeting with London-based historian, director, and radio personality Don Letts
• “Kick-ass” curry at a restaurant owned by DJ Igarashi-San in Sapporo
• Super Good, a James Brown-themed bar in Sendai
• Hot dogs and jazz in Tokyo
• A meet-up with Kusunose-San, a longtime documentarian of Japan’s Kissa scene, in his hometown Nagoya
• A detour to meet Kid Koala in Montreal

Thanks to everyone who supported Eilon on this fun-filled journey. Stay tuned for more exciting accounts of The Vinyl Nomad tour (and the interviews that came out of it!).

Now that Eilon’s back home, we editors will be locking ourselves away to hunker down on Dust & Grooves Volume 2. We’ll go back as far as five years to look at photographs and interviews that need some final touches. We’re sticking to our schedule of printing the book in March and distributing it in August 2024. Lots to do and very little time—this will be a work-filled next few months.

We’re also looking for DJs, collectors, and musical artists to write the foreword for Dust & Grooves Volume 2. We have some exciting names in mind—stay tuned to find out who they are…

We have two new mixtapes on the Dust & Grooves website! Check out the October mix—sequenced by former intern Justin—and the November mix on our Mixcloud page. If you care to support our cause and gain access to the full tracklist, please visit our Patreon page and drop in your spare change. It will keep us moving! 

Speaking of our website, we’re happy to announce that the Dust & Grooves website will undergo some exciting renovations! Check out our sunny new logo for a taste of what’s to come.

Kaitlin’s very own Digging Our Own Crates column has opened its doors to include even more intern voices! Since our last round of Editorial Notes, we’ve published pieces from three more interns: Justin, Kayla, and Vanessa. Congratulations to our astounding team of wordsmiths! I’ve taken over some editing duties during those busy weeks in October, and it has been a pleasure to help these writers tell the stories of the albums that interest them.

And here’s an update from David Ma, Volume Two’s Editor:

“Thrilled to see Eilon, aka the Vinyl Nomad, aka our noble Dust & Grooves creator, return in one piece. The images his travels produced are among his finest, with collectors who are among the most exciting and thoughtful in music culture. As the year comes to a close, we’re busy making deadlines, exploring topics, and taking more photographs, seldom passing on chances to make Volume Two not only bolder than its predecessor but a new high mark for vinyl culture altogether. Here’s to a peaceful and productive new year.”

Thanks, David, for all your hard work!

Back in NYC, Eilon also had the pleasure of meeting an exciting and perhaps not a typical Dust & Grooves interview guest… comedian Eric Andre!

Our friend Peanut Butter Wolf connected the two of them, who went back and forth for six months before finally meeting in Andre’s Manhattan apartment. Eilon was intrigued: would Andre perform as his comedian persona? will this photo shoot turn into a shit show mayhem?? Reassuringly, he was a kind, serious, down-to-earth music fanatic, in person, just like us.

We’re also thrilled about an upcoming project and essential feature in Volume Two: an investigation into Tax Scam records, a peculiar phenomenon that we can’t wait to shed light upon. Thanks to our new friend Thes One, we managed to uncover a plethora of these weird, mysterious vinyl gems. 

Huge shoutout to Kait and Stephen (and myself, if I may), the remaining interns on our small but mighty team. You’ll see lots more work from us on the creative and editorial fronts.

Thanks so much, everyone, for staying tuned and for the positive reception you’ve given us on the Vinyl Nomad photo tour.

Stay groovy,

Skye

P.S. Contact Eilon directly if you’d like to get involved with our team. We’re looking for new volunteers!