Sidebar 2: Dust to Digital
Dust to Digital exists to preserve and disseminate music that lies outside the mainstream. In 1999, Lance Ledbetter went looking for pre-1940 gospel music and couldn't find a suitable source. He assembled Dust-to-Digital's first anthology, Goodbye Babylon, whose 135 tracks included 25 sermons. It was released in 2003 and was nominated for two Grammy Awards. It is sold out in hardcopy, but you can buy the digital download from Bandcamp. Dust-to-Digital has since released dozens of vinyl records, CD sets, DVDs, and book/CD packages featuring music (and movies) from all over the world.
I've only begun to sample Dust-to-Digital's catalog, but I've already discovered a favorite: Drop on Down in Florida: Field Recordings of African-American Traditional Music, 1977-1980, which is sold as a package with a 228-page hardcover book plus 2CDs ($35), although I bought the download from Bandcamp ($15, including a PDF of the book). The music is great, and the field recordings are recent and sound like it.
Since The Harry Smith B-Sides, Dust-to-Digital has already issued another anthology: Excavated Shellac: An Alternate History of the World's Music, a downloadable package that includes 100 recordings and 100 stories from 89 countries and a 186-page PDF "with detailed, contextual mini-histories about both musical origins and the beginnings of the recording industry, touching on the complexities of colonialism, economic agendas, and cultural tourism."
Some Dust-to-Digital physical media is sold out, but all of their recordings are available as downloads at dusttodigital.bandcamp.com; you can buy their whole catalog for $360.50. They also sell T-shirts.—Jim Austin
I've only begun to sample Dust-to-Digital's catalog, but I've already discovered a favorite: Drop on Down in Florida: Field Recordings of African-American Traditional Music, 1977-1980, which is sold as a package with a 228-page hardcover book plus 2CDs ($35), although I bought the download from Bandcamp ($15, including a PDF of the book). The music is great, and the field recordings are recent and sound like it.
Since The Harry Smith B-Sides, Dust-to-Digital has already issued another anthology: Excavated Shellac: An Alternate History of the World's Music, a downloadable package that includes 100 recordings and 100 stories from 89 countries and a 186-page PDF "with detailed, contextual mini-histories about both musical origins and the beginnings of the recording industry, touching on the complexities of colonialism, economic agendas, and cultural tourism."
Some Dust-to-Digital physical media is sold out, but all of their recordings are available as downloads at dusttodigital.bandcamp.com; you can buy their whole catalog for $360.50. They also sell T-shirts.—Jim Austin
