Friends, roamers, record hunters… What’s up!
It’s been a while since the last You Dig?… you missed us, right? Things have been kinda crazy in the Dust & Grooves universe. As always, Eilon’s super busy with stuff, curating events, and working on an exciting new book series dedicated to serious and novice crate diggers. Look out for full details on that really soon.
And we’re going hard on Dust & Grooves events, too… Following the success of our Five Records series with The Gaslamp Killer at Only the Wild Ones in Venice, CA, we’re happy to announce a new four-part series with Cut Chemist, starting on 3 May at the same spot.
Expert of None: Storytelling Through Listening is an intimate, cinematic style “storybook” series that follows Cut Chemist through the records that shaped him. Expect rare vinyl selections, personal narration, and live mixing, tracing the path from Chemist’s childhood listening through to the creation of his defining 2006 solo album, The Audience’s Listening.
“It’s my life’s journey through music and probably the most important period of my life, which is leading up to my first album. I wanted to explore more of a fantasy world of a DJ in isolation with his record collection that I’ve amassed my whole life, and what kind of amusement park I could build with that.” – Cut Chemist
Read on for details of the full series. If you’re in LA, see you there? Cool limited-edition t-shirts available if you swing by.
To mark Expert of None, and the upcoming 20th anniversary of his solo debut, we’re stoked to have Cut Chemist also putting together DG Curates for this issue. The turntable king, DJ, and producer is known for digging as widely as he does deeply—from sample-laden spoken word and psychedelia to hip hop, Ethiopian jazz and Latin grooves. And sure enough, he’s picked out some incredible rarities, books, events and record shops for us here.
On the visual ones and twos for Issue 9 is artist Brandon Campbell – check out his cover artwork, above. He’s worked with us to interpret the Expert of None series with a playful-yet-studied homage to crate digging. Brandon’s research process was nothing if not authentic:
“For specific poses like these, I like to draw directly from photos. So, for several weeks, whenever we had company over, I’d put them to work digging through our record collection while I snapped reference pics. When our neighbor stopped by to return a circle saw, I had him pose with a stack of ska records. No-one was safe. You enter this house… you dig!”
Photos captured, Brandon then layered up the piece from the muted neutral bases to the accent colours and line drawings:
“I used pigmented inks and liquid watercolors for the base, Pantone markers for the accent colors, and felt fineliner pens for the linework.”
If you want Brandon’s vinyl-hunting vignettes on your wall, you can buy a special limited-edition print, below.
We’re back with a bang, people. Enjoy!
Rich Headland
Resident Editor
Dust & Grooves Curates
by Cut Chemist
I’m Cut Chemist. An artist, performance DJ, and music producer based out of Los Angeles, California. I’ve been a music collector for 45 years. I love to buy, share and make music. That pretty much sums up my life.
Hymnal on hip hop
Heroes & Villains. Long-form interviews that caught my eye
There is an interview at the Red Bull Music Academy in Melbourne Australia 2006 with myself and my friend/emcee/poet Hymnal. I find his sections of the interview fascinating. He talks about the origins of hip hop with the origins of the psychedelic movement in a way I’ve never heard before… and I’ve heard many.
Sample Records and Psych Grails
Economy Class. Amazing finds from the $1 bin
Dollar-bin finds are tough in 2026 but throughout my years, I’ve definitely cut my teeth in those. Some of my favorite $1 records that I still play would be a lot of the jazz-funk classics like Higher Ground by Johnny Hammond, Seriously Deep by David Axelrod and Transfusion by Les DeMerle. These are all big ‘sample’ records that have made appearances in rap songs throughout the 1990s.
And, not quite the $1 bin… but I was asked to look through a collection of records to see if there was anything I wanted. I usually don’t entertain the idea in the interest of time but I decided to take some time. It paid off, as I found a Churchill’s original press unplayed in a collection of Israeli traditional field recordings. Might be my biggest WTF come up in my life. That shit hits hard as fuck.
The In Sounds From Way Out
Hello, I love You. Labels I dig
Soundway Records is my favorite label for world music reissues. Panama Vol 1 is a great deep dive into the region from funk to salsa to even sweet soul. I never knew Panama was so diverse.
A Grand Royal Love Story
Books Are Magic. Music book that are not Dust & Grooves
I still think Beastie Boys Book is one of the best reads I’ve ever read. It’s a story that hits home for me as if it were a coming-of-age story that I actually lived.
Rare Shit
Plug Me In, Scotty! Props to the DG community and beyond.
My Bandcamp digital subscription series has been said to be the best one out there. It’s basically me offering the rarest things in my collection to subscribers.
Clash in Colombia
Dig Deeper. Deeper features about music culture
The Future Is Unwritten is a documentary about Joe Strummer from The Clash. There is a turning point in the film where he discovers the music of Colombian artist Andres Landero. It’s a fascinating example of the combination of two music cultures from opposite ends of the earth. Landero is a huge inspiration to me so it was a big deal to learn about this. It demonstrates Strummer’s love for cultural music at its roots which can also explain his love for the Jamaican music so prevalent in The Clash’s work.
Los Cinco Discos
We Love Lists. Top 5 records always in my bag
These are five raw latin LPs that will always be in my bag forever. They’re spiritual and very grounded to the soil.
- Palo Congo – Sabu Martinez
- Afro-Latin Soul – Mulatu Astatke & His Ethiopian Quintet
- Folk Songs of Puerto Rico Folkways Field Recordings
- Cortijo en New York – Cortijo Y Su Combo con Ismael Rivera
- Que Gente Averigua – Mon Rivera Y Su Orquesta
Field Trips
Listen To This . Mixtapes & listening experiences
Dogpatch podcast series by Dante Carfagna and Jon Kirby. Particularly the episode “World Class”.
It explores field recordings from around the world. As per usual, it’s a well-balanced academic listen, waxing with humor to make it fun and fascinating.
Steely Snares
Music Trivia. Spotted in the liner notes.
Did you know that the comedic actor Chevy Chase was the drummer in a band that went on to become Steely Dan?
Field Trips
New Releases. New stuff or re-issues that caught my ear.
AndOarAgain by Alexander Spence. A three-album set of alternate takes from the 1969 psych folk masterpiece Oar. This album is one of my favorites from the genre and to hear alt-takes of the songs is very special.
Diggin’ LA
You Dig Where? Cut’s recommended local record spots
There are a few great stores that offer great records for cheap. Record Safari in LA and Twelves in Long Beach are both fantastic come up spots.They also have their expensive pieces for those not afraid to break the wallet. Atomic Records in Burbank could possibly have the best records in the city due to the location nestled right in the heart of LAs music and film industry. Lots of crazy things walk through their door.
Get Out!
Get Out. Put your phone down and feed your soul with live events.
LA: One place I frequent is The Philosophical Research Society in LA. They have the largest library of occult literature in the country and they also program very interesting events from film screenings to online lectures. May 10 they’re hosting a lecture by Matt Marble about the magical and radical spirit at the heart of Americana Music.
NYC: Edan plays records for the curious listener at Union Pool in Brooklyn on various nights of the week.
London: DJ Format joins Norman Jay on June 20 for the Firkin Good Beer Festival. Both incredible selectors and DJs in their respective fields of musical expertise.
Recovery Sunday
Let’s kill more time and reassure ourselves with high-brow viral scrolliing
EXP TV features unrecycled curation of rare archival footage visual mixes. It’s mad!!
Join The Club
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Our Cover Artwork
You Enter This House, You Dig – Brandon Campbell
This issue’s cover art is a Dust & Grooves collaboration with Brandon Campbell, a designer/illustrator based in Georgia.
He creates vibrant drawings and illustrations using pen & ink, markers, gouache, and things around his studio.
If you enjoyed the story about how Brandon created the artwork for You Dig?, be sure to check out his Instagram for some super cool artist-at-work reels.
A special limited edition print of Brandon’s You Dig? artwork is available on our webstore.
You can also order Brandon’s new ‘reverse coloring book’, Just Add Line, 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.
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
