Friends, roamers, record-hunters…
Welcome to You Dig?, the all-new newsletter from Dust & Grooves Editions.
You Dig? is your monthly low-down on all that’s cool from the Dust & Grooves HQ and the incredible vinyl community around us. We cover all things music, of course, and we’re adding some extra culture with book recommendations, tip-offs for the coolest weekend events, and features from great visual artists.
Each issue welcomes a guest editor, a “music-head” that you will recognize from our community, and one who really knows their stuff. In addition, each issue’s cover art will feature the original work of rotating music-loving visual artists. This month, we are blessed with an amazing cover from collage artist Morgan Jesse Lappin. We love his work so much that he also sorts us out with cover art for Me to You.
Check out this month’s Editorial Notes from our intern Fiona, and continue to the bulk of the issue: Dust & Grooves Curates, with hand-picked recommendations from one of our guest editors. This month, the recs come from me – Rich Headland, resident editor of You Dig?, and founder of Record Shop Stories – but next month we hand over the torch.
It’s gonna be fun. You dig?
Richard Headland
Resident Editor
Vinyl Quotes
“I feel like most record collectors either dream of going to Japan or can’t wait to tell you about buying records in Japan.”
–Cole Evelev
Dust & Grooves Curates
by Richard Headland
Unfinished Business with Tony Allen
Heroes and Villains: Long-form interviews that caught my eye
Foals’ frontman Yannis Philippakis speaks to The New Cue about recording with the late Tony Allen in a smoky Paris basement, for the Yannis and The Yaw Lagos, Paris, London EP that’s been eight years coming.
Digging Up Diamonds
Hello, I Love You: Labels we dig
At what age do we stop experimenting with new music (if, indeed, we ever do)? This fascinating Stat Significant post suggests it’s in our early 30s, sparking plenty of debate on Substack.
Soulful Reggae and Hip House From the Ninja Crew
Listen to This. Mixtapes and aural pleasures
This sweet, soulful reggae and funk selection from Coldcut’s Jon More, recorded last year at Sound Vinyl in South London, has soundtracked many a blissful summer evening for me lately.
Continuing the Ninja Tune theme, check out DJ Food’s sublime and uplifting 45 Live mix of Early House & Hip House 86-91
Ghost Funk Orchestra
Newfound Sounds. This month’s ear-opener
I didn’t know about Ghost Funk Orchestra until I read Michael K. Fell’s ‘seize the day’ story about traveling 1200 miles to catch them in Denver. Since then, I’ve been plundering GFO’s eccentric archive, including this year’s excellent ‘Trip To The Moon’ concept album.
Rook Records Starts Pressing
Plug Me In, Scotty! Props to the DG community and beyond.
East London diggers’ paradise Rook Records has kicked off its own edits label. Release 001 is guaranteed to rock the dancefloor, and points to a bright future for the Rook boys…
Unpacking Aphex
Books Are Magic. Music books we dig that are not Dust & Grooves.
Our friends at Disco Pogo have followed up their book on Daft Punk with Aphex Twin – A Disco Pogo Tribute. Packed with exclusive interviews, essays, and photos, this book promises to get closer to the enigma that is Richard D. James.
Magic Skulls in My Headphones
Now Playing: On rotation right now
In 2008, Money Mark, Shawn Lee and Tommy Guerrero hit the studio, and the Lord Newborn and & Magic Skulls album was the mesmeric result. Insanely groovy, under-listened, and not so easy to track down on wax, sadly…
Scandi Soul Power: Timmion Records
Hello, I Love You: Labels we dig
Helsinki may not be the first place you’d expect to find a label committed to putting out raw soul and funk on wax, but Timmion Records’ roster of homegrown and US talent is one I’m really digging.
Digging in Amsterdam: Platypus Records
Record Shop Stories: Cool indie stores and their people
I’ve just got back from Amsterdam, where I dropped into the renowned Platypus Records to meet owners Raoul and Bas. Super-chilled guys, with a proper den of curiosities… If you’d like to get involved in the series, hit me up on Instagram.
Get Out!
Put your phone down and feed your soul with live events
London: Check out the Jazz Cafe’s first day festival, Sunday 15 September, including The Alchemist, Gilles Peterson and Earl Sweatshirt.
Amsterdam: Three Sacred Souls (Daptone Records) and Yannis and The Yaw (see Heroes and Villains, above) are both in town on Tuesday 10th September.
New York: The Community Block Party
San Francisco: Thievery Corporation, DJ Shadow and Nightmares on Wax on the same bill? Move fast – it’s today at The Midway
Recovery Sunday
Let’s kill more time and reassure ourselves with high-brow viral scrolling
If you forgot about this gem, Dust to Digital will keep you entertained for hours with their reels of crowd-sourced music archival footage. This one will recover your faith in humanity!
Our Cover Artwork
Dust & Grooves City by Morgan Jesse Lappin
This month, our cover art is by the fantastic collage artist, Morgan Jesse Lappin. The Brooklyn-based musician and artist is the founder of Brooklyn Collage Collective, collector and curator of nyc.sticker.book, and co-host of Lucky Time Explosion.
Morgan works with images cut from vintage publications to create his collages. These original works are available as custom prints, check out a range of them here.
We’re also collaborating with Morgan to create the cover art for our new column, Me to You. These pieces, including this You Dig? collage, are available to purchase as limited edition prints in our shop.
Join The Club
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Dust & Grooves Memberships and Support
By now, we’re sure you can see how much love goes into Dust & Grooves. It’s a pure passion project, and Eilon has worked super hard to keep it an independent endeavor—always completely ad-free. This has been going for over a decade, and in that time Dust & Grooves has seen the building of a genuinely great community that celebrates record collecting, and one that has a huge love of music. We absolutely love to see it, and it means a lot to us.
We’re going to kindly ask that you consider to continue this support by looking at becoming a paid member, or make a one-time donation. There are some real groovy benefits to this and discounts on a range of merch, lovely!
Your support means we can preserve the culture we all cherish.
Dust & Grooves Books
Order Now.
Dust & Grooves Vol. 2
Further Adventures in Record Collecting – First Limited Edition
Renowned photographer and publisher Eilon Paz returns after the successful release of Dust & Grooves: Adventures In Record Collecting. For Volume Two, Paz highlights the planet’s biggest proponents of vinyl collecting, bridging stunning images with extensive interviews, revealing the motives and backstories behind the global vinyl community. Ten years after the first release, with vinyl sales skyrocketing and a booming popularity among Gen-Zs, Volume Two digs deeper than its predecessor, underscoring gorgeous collections from astute everyday enthusiasts to venerated DJs, musicians, and producers. Veteran journalist and editor David Ma handles the editorial end to this sequel, making Volume Two a cultural leader in the field, expertly accentuating the world’s unifying devotion to vinyl.
Tailor made for lovers of world-class photography, novice and expert collectors, and music obsessives alike.
Foreword by Prince Paul
Includes interviews with A-Trak, DaM Funk, Quantic, DJ Spinna, Kid Koala, Don Letts, Andy Votel, Mayer Hawthorne and more.
First limited edition of 4000 copies.
Ships locally from 5 main warehouses. US, Canada, Europe (Belgium), UK and Australia.
Portables
A Visual & Historical Exploration of 222 Vintage Portable Turntables
A 470-page hardcover book featuring highly detailed photos and comprehensive research on 222 portable vinyl record players, sourced from the collections of Paola Puente, Kalle Aldis Laar, Eric Cohen, Bas Bogerd and Mark Cruz.
Once considered little more than a children’s plaything or a grade school accessory, the portable record player has gained newfound respect in recent years. Whatever they may lack in high-end audio fidelity, battery-powered turntables more than make up for it with their convenience and ease of use. Just ask any crate digger: a cult favorite portable like the Columbia GP-3 or the Audio-Technica Sound Burger (or even the Fisher-Price Big Bird model) can be an absolutely essential companion on an all-day vinyl hunt.
Portables features lavish, detailed photos of 222 portable turntables from around the world, including rare record players from Japan, the UK, Germany and the Soviet Union as well as the USA, and ranging in vintage from the 1920s to the early twenty-first century. They’re all gorgeously captured here by photographer Eilon Paz, with accompanying commentary from music historian Dan Epstein.
Whether you’re a hardcore turntable collector, an aficionado of cool vintage audio gear, a student of industrial design, or a vinyl lover curious about the wild world of portable record players, Portables will make your head spin—and will soon have you scouring thrift stores, antique malls, and even your grandma’s attic for the portable record player of your dreams.
Dust & Grooves: Vol. 1 & 2
Deluxe Limited Box Set
A deluxe slipcase box set of Dust & Grooves Vol. 1 (10th Anniversary Edition) & Vol. 2.
Includes:
4mm cardboard slipcase with foil stamping and blind deboss
The Dust & Grooves Sleeveface Poster
