Eilon Paz of Dust & Grooves travels around the world meeting and photographing record collectors and their collection. A Dust & Grooves book is in the works, and the website is going strong. Paz met up with Egon recently, and has published an extensive interview and a streamable mix highlighting selections from his collection – excerpt below. See, read, listen to the full feature at Dust & Grooves

Q: What was your first album? How did you get it? At what age? Can you describe that feeling?
A: My first album – i.e. album that I went out and purchased on my own – was either George Harrison “Cloud Nine,” Beastie Boys “Licensed To Ill,” The Police “Synchronicity,” or DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince’s “He’s The DJ, I’m The Rapper.” But I remember singles – “Wipeout” by the Fat Boys; “Mony Mony” by Billy Idol; “Pump Up The Volume” by MARRS. I remember, back then, as I do now, I felt overwhelmed by one aspect of each of those records – as corny as most of them are – and I remember listening to specific songs over, and over, and over again. The first 12” single that I remember searching out was “Mr. Scarface.” That was on MLK Day, 1991. I remember the day as Metro North ran this “free train fare from New Haven to Manhattan” special, and I convinced my Dad to take me from Manhattan to Brooklyn to seek out that 12” at a store I’d found that stocked it. I also got him to take me to Spike Lee’s store where I dutifully bought a Malcom X hat and did my bit to market his forthcoming movie.

Q: Tell me how your passion for vinyl has affected your professional life.
A: I got my job at Stones Throw due to my record collecting – it’s how I met up with Peanut Butter Wolf, how I impressed him (well, partially how I impressed him) into giving me a job, it’s how I befriended Madlib, DOOM and Dilla (initially) and how I was able to start Now-Again. It made everything possible for me, and I never forget that – which is why I never, ever, stop looking for new (old) records. I’m very conscious of this passion of mine which has given me everything that I’ve ever wanted.

Full article with photos & mixtape at:
http://www.dustandgrooves.com/eothen-egon-alapatt-los-angeles-ca/

Madlib’s stoned, brick carrying cartoon alias Quasimoto got a certificate of recognition from the city of Los Angeles, signed by mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the 13-person city council, including mayoral candidate Eric Garcetti. They cite his “excellence in masonry.” Some city governments spend all their time worrying about financial problems, education and transportation — props to the City of L.A. for keeping their priorities straight.

Download Mixtape MP3 | HELIO GLK

Gaslamp Killer is one of our favorite DJs and a big supporter of the Heliocentrics, recently saying that Heliocentrics producer and drummer Malcolm Catto “is the reason I got into all of this shit.” That inspiration comes through in this mix of GLK re-edits of some of the best tracks from their new album 13 Degrees of Reality, and the series of EPs that Now-Again will launch in 2014. He also mixes in some music from 60s ensembles that influenced the band. GLK writes:

“In 2008 Jeff Jank asked me to make a Heliocentrics podcast for stones throw to help promote the guys 1st album. It was one of my most fun & unique mixes. Here we are 5 years later in 2013 & again, I was asked to make a mix of some of the bands newest material from their superb album entitled “13 degrees of reality” that was just released & i was even granted access to some of the unreleased sessions that I had been hearing so much about for so many years from Egon. It is an honor that I present this, (my newest mix) HELIO GLK to the world. My chopped up / re edited madness from the band they call The Heliocentrics!”

There are talks of Now-Again issuing this mix as a limited edition 12” – if that’s the case, we’ll have them for sale here first.

Download MP3 | Heliocentrics “Wrecking Ball”