Friends, roamers, record-hunters…
Welcome to Issue 04 of You Dig?, your monthly low-down on all that’s cool at the intersection of music, physical media, people and photography.
This month’s superb cover art comes from Leicester-based artist Hannah Brown of Kvist Studio. You can read more about Kvist further down the newsletter and find out how to order this print for your very own wall. Your record room needs this…
Last issue I said we’d have some DJ Food to nourish your soul, and indeed we do. Kevin Foakes is behind the desk for this month’s Dust & Grooves Curates, hitting the levels with everything he’s been savouring this month–from a mixtape that honours the memory of J Saul Kane to his top five records on rotation. One of the deepest diggers I’ve met, Kev also finds some rare treasure for well under $1, and has suggested a new section for DG Curates–’You Dig Where?’, in which our guests give kudos to their favorite vinyl emporiums.
As a London-based Dust & Groover, it was a blast to meet a number of you at the ‘DGV2’ and ‘Portables’ launch party at The BBE Store last month. Aside from the sublime DJ sets, it was my first chance to congratulate Eilon in person and check out the books. The talent, love, and hard work that went into them is astounding, and jumps right off the page. Yet, wearing my ‘free whisky’ coat, I left the party feeling that Dust & Grooves is about so much more than the books—it’s truly a worldwide community of souls who love vinyl and, more importantly, celebrate great music.
Further news from the Dust & Grooves HQ in Fiona’s Editorial Notes, below, including some terrific photo highlights from London. Check it out—and keep spinning.
Rich Headland
Resident Editor
Vinyl Quotes
“Good music is good music. I don’t care if you sold a million, zillion, billion copies, or if you sold 100. If it’s purely good, then yeah, there are no guilty pleasures.”
–Mafalda
Dust & Grooves Curates
by Kevin Foakes
I’m Kevin Foakes (aka Strictly Kev, aka DJ Food) and I’ve been DJing since the mid-’80s. I hooked up with Coldcut and the fledgling Ninja Tune label in 1993 and started playing on their Solid Steel radio show, making music with the DJ Food crew and designing for the label under the name Openmind.
Three decades later I’m still playing out and designing records, plus I’ve done a bit of writing over the years including three features in Dust & Grooves Vol2. My monthly radio show–the Electrik Collage–is on ROVR radio and you can also find me at www.djfood.org.
Rave Retrospective
Heroes and Villains: Long-form interviews that caught my eye
I enjoyed this two-part interview with Jerome Hill, DJ and label owner, recalling his past and journey through the acid house and rave years, until now. The Tales From A Disappearing City podcast features all kinds of lesser-known players from across the dance scene in the UK.
Trax on Tape
Economy Class. Amazing finds from the $1 bin
I recently found a gem at Revolution Records in South London–a mid-1980s Trax Records Sampler promo tape–for the sum of 50p. It includes a ten-minute megamix and snippets of forthcoming releases and “catalog hits” like Marshall Jefferson’s ‘Move Your Body’, Adonis’s ‘No Way Back’ and more.
30 Minutes of Madness
Listen to This. Mixtapes and aural pleasures
I recently made a 30-minute, all-45 mix for Forsaj’s show on Subtle Radio. Also worth a listen is Wrongtom’s ‘Kanetiquette’ superb tribute to the music of J Saul Kane who passed away last month.
A Thin Line Between Jail and Creativity
Dig Deeper. Get lost in music.
The recent podcast of The Bureau of Lost Culture on the life and art of Genesis P-Orridge was another great episode in their long-running series. They’re always fascinating dives into all aspects of the counterculture.
Framed Fantasy 45s
Plug Me In, Scotty! Props to the DG community and beyond.
New A3 Riso and Screen prints from Kvist Studio featuring ‘Fantasy 45’ cover designs. There are two designs using different processes.
She also designed the unique header image for this month’s newsletter–also available as a print from Dust & Grooves.
Notes From The Underground
Books Are Magic. Music books that are not Dust & Grooves.
Rammellzee: Racing For Thunder (Rizzoli)
A huge book tracing the life, art and legacy of Rammellzee–the man, the myth, the legend.
Matthew Worley – Zerox Machine (Reaktion Books)
An in-depth look at UK fanzine culture from the mid-’70s to the late ‘80s, with fascinating details about the people who made them and how they evolved as music and culture progressed.
Soul Underground magazine (various copies of a late-’80s UK dance magazine I recently found)
A recent find in a charity shop led me down a rabbit hole with this short-lived dance magazine from the late 1980s. Written largely by DJs of the club and pirate kind in the UK, it showcases British dance culture’s myriad strands as acid house explodes, issue by issue. Bill Brewster compiled selections from the magazine a few years ago for DJ History under the title ‘Catch The Beat’.
Kev’s Prime Cuts
We Love Lists. Top 5 records on my deck this month
DJ Prime Cuts – ‘Our Time Is Now’ 12-inch (Self-release)
Killer electro rework of the Roy Ayres classic, ‘We Live In Brooklyn Baby’–so good.
LL Cool J – The Force (Def Jam)
Mega return to form LP with production by Q-Tip and guests galore–the GOAT still has it.
Paul Cousins – Oxide Manifesto(Castles In Space)
Tape-loop ambience full of analog warmth and off-kilter pitch swerves–lush!
Magictouch – ‘Kyousoku 2&3’ 7-inch (Delic Records dub plate)
Lesson-style cut-ups made entirely from Japanese recordings, out early 2025–a super-dense un-Shazamable workout.
Various Artists – Virtual Dreams II (Music From Memory)
Japanese electronica from 1993-1999. A far-east take on chill out–double lush!
New/Old Horizons
New Releases. Catching my eye right now.
DJ Koco aka Shimokita – ‘World’s Famous’ 7-inch (Bloom Music).
Japan’s finest covers the Malcolm McLaren classic on the first release under his own name.
Get Out!
Put your phone down and feed your soul with live events
New York: The Futura 2000 retrospective show is on until March at the Bronx Museum.
London: Rook Records, Hackney, 7 December. New Tokyo vs NYC record stock drops plus in-store DJ sets from DJ Prime Cuts, Aroe and Rival Self.
Amsterdam: Into the Universe x Iklectik at Doka, 8 December. Cross-channel experimentation with audiovisual accompaniments from Rrose x Vincent Rang / Surgeons Girl x Daisy Dickinson / Paduan x Eli Hooper.
Recovery Sunday
Let’s kill more time and reassure ourselves with high-brow viral scrolling
Motive Unknown’s Darren Hemmings’ regular Network Notes newsletter is illuminating on the workings of the music industry machine, new tech and related subjects. I always find something in his recommended articles and links.
Foodie Hangouts
You Dig Where? Recommended local record spots
Alan’s Records, East Finchley, London: A proper old-school second-hand record shop.
Wow & Flutter, Hastings, UK: Records, comics, art, coffee, Japanese toys and ephemera–what’s not to like?
Killacutz, Amsterdam: great selection of used dance music of all genres, and plenty of listening decks.
We would like to thank Kevin once again for his fantastic recommendations and his unbeatable attitude. We will never get enough of you ❤️
Our Cover Artwork
Fantasy 45s By Hannah Brown
This month’s lovely cover art comes from Leicester-based artist Hannah Brown from Kvist Studios. You can get your own print from our online store.
Join The Club
Subscribe to You Dig? and more updates
Be Our Next Cover Artist!
Friends, we’re calling all music-loving visual artists for our brand-new newsletter, You Dig? For every copy, we feature a different artist for the cover art—could this be you? We know that we’re a talented community, so we would love to see submissions to be included in the next issue. Contact us for more info on the submission process here.
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
