Not journalists.
Collectors who write.
Four people with too many records, too many opinions, and the conviction that nobody was writing about vinyl the way it deserved. So we started.
London is where it started. Not in the same shop, not in the same year — but in the same city, the same circuit of dealers and listening bars and fairs where the right things turned up in the wrong neighbourhoods. Each of us was there for different reasons. The records were the common language.
When everyone came home, the conversation didn't stop. It moved to a group chat: links, pressing notes, arguments about mono vs stereo, recommendations that went nowhere because there was nowhere to put them. At some point the obvious question arrived: why are we writing this only for each other? Groov-illa is what happened when we decided we weren't.
Not a list. Not a database with opinions attached. Something that treats a vinyl record the way it deserves — sleeve, matrix, pressing, history, sound — and the music inside it as the reason any of this matters.
"A record is never just music. It's an object, a ritual, the scent of dust and lacquer. Collecting vinyl is collecting time."
Groov-illa doesn't have an editorial team in the traditional sense. It has a group of people who gather around a record — physically or virtually — and then go back to writing. Everyone brings something specific. Nobody brings objectivity: we leave that to press releases.
Started buying records at fifteen in a shop in Monza that no longer exists. Formed by Ciao 2001, Rockerilla, Il Mucchio Selvaggio, L'Ultimo Buscadero, Rolling Stone — magazines that treated a record as a serious matter. Never stopped since. Groov-illa is where he writes about music the way he always wanted to: no mandatory rankings, no algorithms to please. Just records that matter.
BRITISH ROCK · PUNK · PROG · FOLK · EIGHTIES
Soul saved him at least three times. The first at twenty, when he put on Otis Redding by accident and understood that music could change the temperature of a room. Has been collecting soul and funk on vinyl for thirty years and still finds it astonishing when a groove cut sixty years ago sounds like it was recorded yesterday. Mike G. is a pseudonym, of course. Those who know, know — and for those who don't, this will do: you recognise the right records by the groove, not by the name on the sleeve.
SOUL · FUNK · R&B · JAZZ · GEAR
The music that interests him is the kind that doesn't have a clear edge. Eno, Reich, Basinski, Noto — everything that lives in the spaces between sounds rather than the sounds themselves. On vinyl these things acquire a physical weight that digital cannot return. Writes about records that demand attention, not background. John S. is a pseudonym. If you recognise the photo, you're definitely one of us.
AMBIENT · EXPERIMENTAL · ELECTRONIC · KRAUTROCK
Grew up with her father's records — Nick Drake, Fairport Convention, Pentangle. Always believed folk was music for being alone in good company. Writes about records that feel handmade, that have something of the craft about them. If an album doesn't make her want to stay quiet and listen, it's not worth writing about. Emma P. is a pseudonym. If you recognise the photo, you already know everything there is to know.
FOLK · PSYCH FOLK · SINGER-SONGWRITERWhat we believe — and what we'll never do.
- Authority without arrogance. Expertise shows through analysis, not self-congratulation. If a record has a flaw, we say so.
- Vinyl as a total object. Sleeve, pressing, matrix, history: it's all part of the experience. A review that doesn't address the pressing is only half a review.
- No algorithms. We don't write for search engines. We write for the person who puts a record on the platter and wants to understand what they're hearing — and why it matters.
- Transparency about affiliate links. Groov-illa uses Amazon affiliate links. We say so clearly on every page. It doesn't change what we write: it helps pay for the server.
- Passion without sentimentalism. Enthusiasm is legitimate. Uncritical admiration is not. Every record must earn our respect — even the ones we've loved for thirty years.
A note on digital music.
We're not purists. We stream. We use playlists. We're on Spotify. But we believe there is a qualitative difference — not just sonic, but ritual and cultural — in the act of placing a record on a platter, lowering the stylus, and waiting those three seconds of surface noise before the music begins. Groov-illa exists for people who know what we're talking about.
"The digital magazine for those who still believe music is meant to be listened to, not streamed.
Every word written with the needle in the groove."