Greetings from the Dust & Grooves HQ,
Eilon here.
Remember the do-not-disturb sign we hung up back in 2024? Well… it never really came down. It’s been quiet around here for a while, and not because we ran out of things to say. We’ve been heads down, buried in spreadsheets, proofs and record covers, working on the biggest thing we’ve done since DG Volume 2.
VInyl Digest
Today we can finally say it out loud. Meet Vinyl Digest, a brand-new book series from Dust & Grooves. Four volumes, 1,500 records, all out November 30, 2026. And yes, pre-orders are open right now.
VInyl Digest: A Collector’s Field Guide
Vinyl Digest is a series of record guides, each one a collector’s field guide that takes you to a far corner of the record world and goes deep: hundreds of records, each with its cover and its story, written by collectors who actually own and play them. If you’ve ever drooled over those Japanese disc guides without being able to read a word of them, this one’s for you. As far as we know, there’s never been an English-language series quite like it.
How It Came to Be
Back in 2010, Dust & Grooves was a scrappy little blog, and I was knocking on collectors’ doors with a camera. One of our very first international interviews was with Manu Boubli in Paris: DJ, producer, co-founder of Superfly Records, and a walking encyclopedia of rare grooves. You can still read it here. The comments section alone is a time capsule.
We became good friends and kept in touch ever since. Manu always appreciated what we do and, maybe more importantly, how we do it. So a couple of years ago, he came to me with an idea: a series of deep-dive record guides, in English, made with the same obsessive care we put into our books. I said yes on the spot. I’m leading and investing; Manu is co-creator, author on part of the series, and our consultant and partner in crime.
Young Manu at 2010 in his iconic Parisian Chambre de Bonne
Building the Team
A project like this lives or dies by its people, so we took our time putting the team together. The first call went to Andrew Mason, founding editor of Wax Poetics Magazine, who signed on as Series Editor and personally edited Spiritual & Cosmic Jazz and African Funk, Soul & Disco.
If you know us, you know what Wax Poetics means to us, so having Andrew on board is an honor, full stop.
Then there’s Fiona MacPherson-Amador. Some of you will remember her from 2024, when she joined us as an editorial intern and introduced herself right here in Editorial Notes. Two years later, she’s our Managing Editor, running the show in full force. Proud doesn’t begin to cover it.
Anna Blumenthal came on to edit Gospel Soul and Folk, Rock & Psychedelia in South & Southeast Asia
And Jonathan Sandridge, who designed Dust & Grooves Volume 2 and Portables, is back too. We vibed working on those books, and now he’s designing this entire series.
As for the authors, they weren’t picked from a list. Each one was chosen after careful consideration and a close knowledge of their collection. These are people whose shelves we’ve seen, whose records we’ve heard, and whose obsessions we trust.
On Spiritual & Cosmic Jazz, Manu teams up with Amir Abdullah, aka DJ Amir, the founder of 180 Proof Records and the man who brought Detroit’s Strata Records catalog back to life. Manu returns on African Funk, Soul & Disco alongside Uchenna Ikonne, the historian and producer whose Comb & Razor blog and label helped spark the vintage African music revival of the 2000s. Gospel Soul comes from Greg Belson, the Los Angeles DJ behind the Divine Disco compilations and host of The Divine Chord Gospel Show on dublab. And Folk, Rock & Psychedelia in South & Southeast Asia is the work of Chris Menist and Maft Sai, the duo behind the Paradise Bangkok label and parties, with Maft also running Bangkok’s Zudrangma Records.
And then there’s the outside. Anyone who has ever flipped through a crate knows the cover is half the seduction, so every volume got its own original artwork. We didn’t want illustrators for hire. We wanted artists who live inside the music each book is about, and we ended up with a lineup that runs from rising talent to living history. Mzwandile Buthelezi, a fresh voice, created the cover for Spiritual & Cosmic Jazz. African Funk, Soul & Disco wears a cover by none other than Lemi Ghariokwu, the artist behind many of Fela Kuti’s most iconic sleeves. Yes, that Lemi. We’re still pinching ourselves. Bráulio Amado and Marigold Santos complete the set with Gospel Soul and Folk, Rock & Psychedelia in South & Southeast Asia.
Lemi and the original Vinyl Digest AFSD artwork.
Down the Rabbit Hole
Making one book is hard. Making four at the same time is… a choice.
We worked on all four volumes in parallel, each one about records that are super rare and hard to find. And we know exactly who’s going to read them: YOU. The people who will scrutinize every catalog number, every pressing year and every spelling of every band name. No pressure. (Yes, we love a good challenge.)
So the past months looked like this: a spreadsheet for every book, hundreds of rows each. Endless proof rounds. Endless checks against Discogs and many, many other sources. Catalog numbers, labels, years and credits, checked, double-checked, then checked again. We did our best, and we’re proud of what came out the other end.
You will love spreadsheets…You will love spreadsheets…You will love spreadsheets…You will love spreadsheets…You will love spreadsheets…You will love spreadsheets…You will love spreadsheets…You will love spreadsheets…
The Great Cover Hunt
The hardest part by far was the album cover hunt for African Funk, Soul & Disco. Many of these records are so rare that even our authors didn’t have them all, let alone in decent condition. Three weeks before our deadline, we were still missing about 50 covers. Clock ticking. Mild panic.
So we did what we always do when we’re stuck: we asked you. One email blast to this very list did the trick, and we were down to about 15.
Now what?? For the last stubborn ones, I went full detective on Discogs, cross-referencing the sellers who’d marked those records in their collections and messaging them one by one. For some titles, only five people in the entire world had a copy. And people answered! Generous, kind, nerdy, wonderful people. The best part was connecting with collectors in Africa, like Imhotem Lamumba, who sent us their own covers. That’s what this community is.
Huge, heartfelt thanks to everyone who dug into their shelves for us: Armand de Préseau, Charles Cortes, Cesare Barbetta, Chris Albertyn, DJ Qbico, François Mounielou, Riverb Berlin, Greg de Villanova, Imhotem Lamumba, John Stapleton, Julien, Massimo, Neal Becton, Sami Sierla, and every Discogs member who answered a stranger’s message. Without you, there would be some very sad blank squares in this book. Thank you!
Colomach straight from the source
Yata Zoe’s only cover found. Yes, we managed to reconstruct it!
The Books
Four volumes, one shared format: A5 softcovers with a die-cut window on the cover that reveals the full artwork, full color throughout, and 300 to 400 records per book. Each volume also has a Selects By… section with personal picks from guest selectors across the music world, including Gilles Peterson, Four Tet, Rich Medina, Tina Edwards, Lovie, DJ Spinna and Matthew Halsall. Next year we’ll start turning their picks into listening playlists, so you can hear what you’re reading.
All four volumes are out November 30, 2026, but you can pre-order them now!
Watch out for a formal announcement coming soon.
Launch Parties: Coming to a City Near You (Get Involved!)
We’re working on launch parties around the globe. New York, Los Angeles, London, Paris, Amsterdam and Bangkok are all in the works, but nothing’s locked yet, so this is where you come in. Got a venue? Want to host? Know a brand or sponsor who’d love to throw a party for a room full of record nerds? Drop us a line. You know what to do.
This Is Just the Beginning
These four are only the first titles. Vinyl Digest is an ongoing series, and our wish list is already long. Which genre, scene or region should we dig into next? Please tell us. We read everything.
Stay tuned, go support your local record store, and start making some room on the shelf. Four books’ worth, to be exact.
Peace on earth,
Eilon and the Dust & Grooves team
PS. Oh wait… one more small thing. I’m about to become a dad! Our first child is due any day now. Four books and a baby in the same season. Did we say we’re busy???
