Back in New York, Back in Control | Rest and Reset | Let’s Get Going | What Do You Want? | Meet the Collectors! | The Vinyl Motherlode, There’s More!
Happy New Year from me at the editorial desk for the first time in 2025. We’re happy to have had a bit of rest after a truly hectic year, and even happier to be back in somewhat full swing. Here’s what you’ve missed and here’s what to expect.
Back in New York, Back in Control
The last set of Editorial Notes was when we were wrapping up the book tour. Eilon was back in the US, but having an adventure across the West Coast to finish up the string of parties. They ended on a high at the Gold Bar in L.A. after a whirlwind couple of months of celebrating the release of Dust & Grooves Vol. 2. Whilst settling back into Brooklyn, Eilon has recently, and looking forward to a brand new year of more Dust & Grooves content beyond books.
We’re so grateful for all the incredibly positive reception surrounding the releases. A great example of this is another exciting feature in Rolling Stone magazine, who shared Aaron Milenski’s brilliant editorial investigation Stolen Grooves: How The Music Industry Scammed Artists For Tax Breaks, which is featured in Dust & Grooves Vol. 2. This covered the music industry’s scandal of scamming artists into recording for what turned out to be a tax scam. You can read an excerpt of the feature here. We’re a strong community, but it’s such an amplified feeling when you see the community coming together in all corners of the globe before your eyes. Hopefully, more of that in 2025!
Rest and Reset
Over the holiday season, I must say it’s been relatively quiet. I have personally taken a bit of time off after completing my MA and working full-time here at Dust & Grooves in the remote covens of Wales. Eilon has spent that time just about recovering from the quite literal global adventure of book releases and touring. This has been an incredibly busy year, so it’s always worth a bit of a backstep to be able to take an ever bigger one forward.
Let’s Get Going | New Interview with A-Trak
Part of this big step is the huge vault of amazing interviews we have kept safe in our vaults. We’ve kicked off strongly, our first interview of the year being with the incredible A-Trak, by the great Nate LeBlanc. A-Trak spoke to Nate about how you get into music in the first place, which he did at a very young age, sharing that when approached to go on the road, “these guys had to call my house and ask my parents’ permission for me to come and perform at the Montreal stop of this tour!” His career spans an incredible exploration of hip-hop and house, stemming from the absolute masterclass of turntablism. You can catch the interview in its entirety here.
You should also definitely check out the accompanying mixtape here, compiled by yours truly. This is without a doubt my favorite part of the job, so make it worthwhile and give it a listen and share.
We have many more of these interviews and mixtapes coming your way in the new year, and I’m editing through to sort us out until June, so I look forward to you enjoying this weekly fun until at least the summer solstice. It’ll come soon, I promise!
Armand Van Helden – 2 Future 4 U EP. “Absolutely perfect 1990s house music by the East Coast hitmaker. Nowadays, Armand and I are in a group called Duck Sauce. Back in 1998, I was just a hip-hop kid so I wasn’t paying attention to house music. The video for ‘U Don’t Know Me’ caught my attention. It spoke a language that I understood.”
J Dilla – Ruff Draft EP. “Masterful EP by the king of ethereal, banging beats. This is the first edition of Ruff Draft, released by the German distributor Groove Attack. Back in Montreal, we were exposed to a good amount of imported European releases. Dilla was from Detroit, and he bounced around labels and distributors. Being a fan of his meant going on wild goose chases just to find some of these records.”
What Do You Want?
We love this content, and we’re happy with how it’s going. But we want to check in with you like the good partners we are. Is there anything you particularly enjoyed in 2024 from us that you want to see more of this year? What new ideas could we introduce? What could we be doing better? Please let us know! Ultimately, we’re in this together and we want to make this as great as it can be for all of you. Get in touch if you have any suggestions for making this year even better than last, no wrong answers.
Meet the Collectors!
New year, new ideas—we have another new series for you! In a set of reels, we bring you exclusive photos and quotes from our collectors. This is a short preview of the book and an insight into the people who have made it happen. We’re giving you a couple of exclusive photos and quotes, so you can see the prize records of our collectors, and know a little more about their philosophies on collecting. As these are in Instagram reel format, Eilon and I (a Gen Z) have met in the middle to make some sensational millennial content.
The Vinyl Motherlode, There’s More!
We know we said the winner of our huge vinyl giveaway would be announced before the end of the year, but there have been developments. We’ve had more exciting brands join the bandwagon, and we just couldn’t resist getting more goodness on board. This includes a selection of records from our next addition, We Want Sounds and more upcoming stuff from Jazz Is Dead and Wax Poetics Magazine. Enter The Vinyl Motherlode Giveaway here
There’s still more fun to be had, and if you think about it, it’s better to have something to look forward to in January than in the holidays!
Keep spinnin’ and stay groovy,
Fiona, Eilon, and the Dust & Grooves Team.
