Search Results for:

DFA

Weeks Island

Droste

    The Weeks Island project began in 2018 when, itching for something during a break from his gig playing guitar for the Grammy-winning Cajun group Lost Bayou Ramblers, Jonny Campos ventured to his bandmate’s house and recorded a series of deep, amoebic, ambient pedal steel passages across two afternoons. It wasn’t all heavy, though: he paid that bandmate, Kirkland Middleton, in Cane’s chicken strips.

    The tracks on Droste are named for bodies of water that no longer exist, their names wiped from maps thanks to the disintegrating shorelines of Southern Louisiana. That feeling of impermanence hangs over this record - the tracks don’t so much begin and end as slip in and out of your consciousness. It can be a serene passive listen or a deep one that marinates long after the runout.

    Droste originally appeared on Nouveau Electric Records, run by another Rambler, Louis Michot, in 2020, digitally and on cassette. DFA picked it up via an connection from LCD Soundsystem’s Korey Richey, and began a years-long process to cut the record to vinyl, a task made difficult by the sharp pedal steel and waves of harmonic distortion that color the music. After more than a few tries and the addition of three brand new tracks, Bob Weston at Chicago Mastering Service nailed it, and it was pressed beautifully at Furnace Record Pressing in Alexandria, VA.

    TRACK LISTING

    1. Point Fortuna
    2. Racoon Island
    3. Fleur Pond
    4. Bayou La Chute
    5. Cyprien Bay
    6. Yellow Cotton Bay
    7. Locust Pond
    8. Grace Pond

    LCD Soundsystem

    Pow Pow (Idjut Boys Remix) / Too Much Love (Rub-N-Tug Remix)

      Hand-stamped 12" limited to 1000 pieces. Among the depths of the DFA vault (really an assortment of poorly organized hard drives of varying vintages), we found this true hidden gem, a version of "pow pow" made all squirrely by master squirrels the Idjut Boys. Why we kept this a secret for 14 years will forever remain a mystery. It's a distant cousin of the original - vocals gone, drums looped out, synths and delay coming down like acid rain. A real chugger. What better to pair it with, then, than Rub-N-Tug's remix of "too much love," long out of print from its original pressing in 2005 and still a complete monster meant for dark rooms and smoke machines cranked up past 11. It lives on wax once again, now with a likeminded buddy. Both tracks were recut at 45RPM by Bob Weston and pressed with care by the good humans at Third Man Pressing in Detroit, MI

      TRACK LISTING

      A1. Pow Pow (Idjut Boys Remix)
      B1. Too Much Love (Rub-N-Tug Remix)

      Loopsel

      Öga For Öga

        Like a dream foggily remembered, Loopsel’s ‘Öga for Öga’ is tempting in its beauty yet slightly menacing in its depth. These songs, like paths in the forest, are heavily, almost treacherously, reverberated, with fingerplucked guitars acting as your signposts amongst the flora and fauna of field recordings, pads and the cool, calm voice of Elin Engström. The album is the second from Engström as Loopsel. She is a Gothenburg-based musician and one half of both the group Monokultur and the team behind the tiny Mamma’s Mystersika Jukebox label with her partner JJULIUS. During what seemed like the nadir of the pandemic, the blurry, otherworldly sounds emanating from their living room snaked into the office of New York’s DFA Records, where the otherwise dutifully DIY pair found the scale of worldwide release and distribution.

        TRACK LISTING

        1. Poison Tree
        2. Öga For Öga
        3. Skammen
        4. Sorgen
        5. I En Skog
        6. Time Machine
        7. Det Vi Inte Får
        8. Spit Three Times
        9. Tiden

        Various Artists

        DFA Compilation #2

          First time available on final! New York's ultra-cool and totally brilliant DFA (Death From Above) label bring us a second round up of all their twelves following on from "Compilation #1". Included are two discs of awesome punk-funk bombs from JOY, The Rapture, LCD Soundsystem and a first ever DFA-Liquid Liquid collaboration "Bellhead" (soooo good!), or more electronic and electro-punk outings from The Juan Maclean, Pixeltan, Delia Gonzalez, Black Leotard Front and Black Dice. The third disc features a DJ-mixed selection by Tim Sweeney and Tim Goldsworthy. You need this!!

          “What could have been a mere anthology of the label's uniformly excellent 2004 output is, additionally, a meticulously assembled personal narrative. This is a label that balances its musical and commercial aspirations with an earthy, no-bullshit disposition and - let's say it - the world's best fucking handclaps.” - Nick Sylvester, Pitchfork, in the heady days of 2004.

          Behold, "Compilation #2". A compendium what are arguably the best prime-era DFA cuts, mostly all recorded and/or remixed at the old DFA Studios on W. 13th Street (with some notable exceptions), released as 12-inches at the time, and then compiled onto a 3xCD set for convenience because, at the time, people actually bought CDs more than vinyl.

          Now, in the spirit of time not really being much of a linear thing anymore, and for our own selfish desire to have this version of Liquid Liquid’s “Bellhead,” produced by the DFA, finally committed to wax, we have reverse engineered this thing back onto vinyl and presented it as a four-record boxed set.

          We went back and found the master tapes or files for each song - a not insignificant effort given our habit of disorganization. We then rather painstakingly resequenced and remastered it with the guy we trust with such things: Bob Weston at Chicago Mastering Service. The lacquers Bob cut were plated and pressed at what we believe to be one of the best pressing plants in the country: QRP in Salina, Kansas.

          We tell you all of this to say: we took this shit pretty seriously. Because we felt like it was important and because we felt like some folks would really appreciate it. It sounds remarkable. It looks great. (Rob Carmichael re-did the original packaging, adding a new photo from DFA OG Tim Saccenti from one of the original parties at W. 13th St.) Of course, we somehow can’t stop ourselves from making labeling errors - Pixeltan’s “That’s the Way I Like It” somehow escaped the center labels on the fourth record. It’s kind of the DFA curse. Has to be!

          TRACK LISTING

          A1. Black Leotard Front - Casual Friday
          B1. J.O.Y. - Sunplus (DFA Remix)
          B2. The Juan MacLean - I Robot
          B3. The Juan MacLean - Dance Hall Modulator Dub
          C1. Delia Gonzalez & Gavin Russom - Rise (DFA Remix)
          C2. Black Dice - Wasteder
          C3. J.O.Y. - Sunplus
          D1. LCD Soundsystem - Yeah (Pretentious Version)
          D2. The Rapture - Sister Saviour (DFA Dub)
          E1. Liquid Liquid - Bellhead
          E2. LCD Soundsystem - Yeah (Crass Version)
          F1. Delia Gonzalez & Gavin Russom - El Monte
          F2. The Rapture - Alabama Sunshine
          G1. Pixeltan - Get Up : Say What (DFA Remix)
          G2. LCD Soundsystem - Beat Connection (Extended Disco Dub)
          H1. Pixeltan - That’s The Way I Like It
          H2. Black Dice - Endless Happiness (EYE Remix)
          H3. The Juan MacLean - Less Than Human

          Larry Gus

          Kerkis (Judas-Tree)

          Larry Gus releases a single alongside his ‘Subservient’ album. The single features ‘Kerkis (Judas-Tree)’ and ‘Foreign Steps’ from the same recording sessions as Subservient. The 7” precedes an upcoming audio play, written by Efthimis and scored by Larry, to be produced with the Onassis Stegi (AKA Cultural Center). The audio play will be released on DFA in 2020.

          The record graciously explores the nuance that can be found within delineated lines: pop and folk music, rooted in Greek tradition; internal anxieties and empathy expressed outward; the tightrope struggle of living in the present and wallowing in the past.

          TRACK LISTING

          Kerkis (Judas-Tree)
          Foreign Steps

          The Juan Maclean return to DFA with a compilation LP of 12-inch singles they’ve amassed over the past six years – re-edited, re-mastered, and ready for fans who may have missed the tracks the first time around. From the dub house sway of 2013’s “You Are My Destiny” to the high-energy stomp of this May’s “Zone Non Linear,” and featuring two never-before-released tracks, “Quiet Magician” and “Pressure Danger,” The Juan Maclean once again justify their longevity as a musical force that is more than capable of repurposing club tracks for every setting.

          The Brighter The Light is put together in a way that lends itself to appreciating the sheer banging quality of the songs while simultaneously being able to dance to them in your living room. For example, take “Feel Like Movin,’” which Pitchfork called “gloriously beatific” and “pure DFA gold.” In the new remastered version, the fullness of the keys and the kicks takes over, unfurling across the listener. Deep house rhythms, sparkling synths and a certain spaciousness are what’s emphasized across the record. Gone is the slow-motion melancholy disco from their recent full-lengths – The Brighter The Light is all fierce enthusiasm and dance floor missives, perfect for those who aren’t quite ready to let go of summer.

          Juan Maclean is a DJ and producer who has been a mainstay of the New York club scene, as well as maintaining a rigorous international touring schedule, since the release of his first records on DFA in 2002. Vocalist Nancy Whang is his longtime collaborator, best known as a founding member of LCD Soundsystem and a busy touring DJ. Together, the two artists have released an extensive catalogue of 12” singles and full-length albums for DFA, including 2014’s seminal In A Dream LP. The proper follow-up studio album will follow in 2020.

          TRACK LISTING

          1 What Do You Feel Free About?
          2 Zone Non Linear
          3 You Are My Destiny
          4 Get Down (With My Love)
          5 Feel Like Movin'
          6 Quiet Magician
          7 Pressure Danger
          8 Can You Ever Really Know Somebody
          9 The Brighter The Light

          I've never met him, but I'm fairly certain Eric Copeland is a total lunatic. Don't get me wrong, he dealt in the deranged during his time in Black Dice, but since going solo on our ass, the NYC musician has disappeared through the looking glass. Wrong speed brain mulch, queasy tape loops, jacking perx, all brought together with the same narcotic glee you find at the heart of the darkweb.
          This time out Eric delivers "Trogg Modal Vol. 2" pushing his 'Freakbeat 4/4' envelope further than ever before. Self-described as “late Night Flight proto tekno,” the tracks pulse with thick layers of percussion, melodic fever dreams, and riffs wrung through a taffy puller.
          Opener "Beat It" is less a reference to a lately disgraced child molesting popstar, and instead a slamming combo of girthy bass and kick, red lining hats and overlapping synth work - generally as demented as it is danceable. "High Score Zed" scoots down the coin slot of a Jamaican arcade game, blasting out a high speed hybrid of digi-dancehall and 8-bit funk, while "United Banana" slides a morbidly obese bass sound under dreamy pads and crashing cymbals for some unorthodox house bizz. A-side closer "Pay Off" is optimistic, off kilter and kinda nonsensical in the best way possible - play this and put your lampshade on your head. Over on the flipside "BS Dropout" stomps and squelches like Krang in a washing machine, "Light Fantastic" flips e-funk and new wave into a new form of drug addled wrongness (Super intense!) and "Blazin" sounds like Mr Fingers after 7 bottles of cough syrup. Last but not least "Falo" picks up the videogame vibe, recreating a Sonic in the labyrinth ambiance but with way more bitrate. Top notch weirdshit from my favourite experimentalist.


          TRACK LISTING

          01. Beat It
          02. High Score Zed
          03. United Banana
          04. Pay Off
          05. BS Dropout
          06. Light Fantastic
          07. Blazin
          08. Falo

          Planningtorock

          Powerhouse

            After four years, Berlin-via-Bolton dance producer Planningtorock, aka Jam Rostron, returns to DFA with "Powerhouse". The album is a personal reflection, told via an avant-pop musical narrative that serves as a path to making peace with their family, hometown, and the ever-changing nature of identity. Written and recorded across Berlin, London, New York and Los Angeles,  ‘Powerhouse’ comes couched in the precision-tooled synths that have become Rostron’s signature, though critics and fans will hear a subtle, ear worm-y shift in style here: from the Noughties US R&B swagger of ‘Transome’ and the bubbling old school 90s house of ‘Beulah Loves Dancing’ and ‘Non Binary Femme’, to the funky, flute-laced ‘Much To Touch’ (the only track on ‘Powerhouse’ to feature a co-producer, long-time friend and collaborator Olof Dreijer of The Knife). Ultimately, ‘Powerhouse’ is a celebration of liberation, a groove-filled record that sees Rostron consolidating power both personal and artistic.

            TRACK LISTING

            Wounds
            Transome
            Dear Brother
            Somethings More Painful Than Others
            Much To Touch
            Jam Of Finland
            Non Binary Femme
            Piece Of My Mind
            Beulah Loves Dancing
            Powerhouse

            ‘Horse Follows Darkness’ is the second record by Delia Gonzalez, her follow up to the album ‘In Remembrance’.

            The title is taken from a werewolf genre film her 8 year old son Wolfgang had created. At this time, Wolfgang also turned Delia onto a genre of cinema she had always resisted - the American Western. Delia explains that what she observed “was all relevant - the album is based on our personal experience of moving back to America (from Berlin) and the journey that followed. The record is a manifestation of that, and what one creates for themselves under the given circumstances. Coming back to America, I felt like a foreigner and NYC / America felt like the Wild West. Most Westerns from the 1960s to the present have revisionist themes. Many were made by emerging major filmmakers who saw the Western as an opportunity to expand their criticism of American society and values into a new genre.”

            The narrative of the record is one of re-encountering the frontier mentality that shaped the country but somehow never faded. This time as a foreigner. The genre of the Western remains pertinent, many of the same stories of that brutally deromanticized era are still relevant today.

            ‘Horse Follows Darkness’ is essentially a modern electronic soundtrack for the Revisionist Western. Even the idea for the record cover is inspired by one of the most well known modern Westerns, Robert Altman’s ‘McCabe & Mrs Miller’.

            The album was recorded with Abe Seiferth at Transmitter Park studios, which Delia likens to “going to the finest tailor.” Abe became an integral part of the recording, playing guitar and helping to suggest experimenting with different synthesizers, something Delia was keen to do. Delia refers to Abe as “a magical and incredibly intuitive collaborator” regarding the sound of the record.

            The music that emerged from these recording sessions combines a range of influences - from the compositions of Erik Satie to ‘Salon De Musique’, the solo piano record by Su Tissue (of the LA punk band Suburban Lawns). The record also took on a much different shape and sound with the introduction of the Sequential Circuits Prophet VS, as well as a vintage Korg Poly synth and the Roland SH-101. The golden era Krautrock recordings of bands like Neu!, Cluster and Harmonia were touchstones as well, the repetition, swirling soundscapes and locked-in rhythm tracks.

            Delia Gonzalez is a Cuban-American musician and artist, based in both New York City and Berlin. Her disciplines include everything from composer to filmmaker, dancer / choreographer, sculptor, painter and performance artist. Her musical career with DFA Records began in 2004 when the label released the 12” single ‘Relevee’, followed by the album of cosmic acid house ‘The Days Of Mars’, with Delia and then musical partner Gavin Russom.

            In 2015, DFA released Delia’s first solo album entitled ‘In Remembrance’, which was a full piano score for a 30 minute filmed ballet, a perfect example of the type of work Delia creates as a multi-disciplinary artist.

            STAFF COMMENTS

            Barry says: Gonzalez spans the whole range of avant-garde ambience on this stunning release, from clattering field recordings (a-la Set Fire To Flames), Krautrock rhythms and stunning modern classical beauty. An exceptional album from an exceptionally gifted composer.

            TRACK LISTING

            In Through The Light
            Hidden Song
            Roulette
            Horse Follows Darkness
            Vesuvius

            "GT Ultra" is the second full length album by Guerilla Toss on DFA Records. The album demonstrates a remarkable shift in sound, musicianship and songwriting, without ever giving up the remarkable unhinged quality that made their earlier recordings so exciting. The album title "GT Ultra" is a clever nod to Project MK Ultra, the government sponsored experiments using new experimental drugs to explore mind control, torture and forced confessions, often with LSD as their drug of choice. These tests lasted from the mid-1950s-1960s but with a new administration in the White House, government sponsored torture is fresh again on many minds. The songs on the album ricochet back and forth between hyper bouncy pop and deeper darker longer, more nuanced tracks. Peter Negroponte’s drumming, always a major highlight for the band, is in full force once again, this time bringing a Nassau / Compass Point feel to many tracks, like the classic recordings of Grace Jones and Talking Heads. Kassie’s vocals and lyrics are both more personal and more cryptic than ever (but you can hear every word this time and there is a lyric sheet). As preferred, the meaning is within the listener. It is a dream state record for sure, meant to take you along on a similar vibe that the band has been tripping on these past few years, filled with an insistence to “hydrate, gyrate, think straight, no weight,” all the while under the influence of golden beams of orange sunshine, glimmering glitter and kaleidoscopic bursts.

            Adding to the authenticity, the album is wrapped in vintage blotter acid, created by legendary LSD archivist and artist Mark McCloud and The Institute Of Illegal Images, based in Francisco.

            STAFF COMMENTS

            Barry says: A visceral and heavy-hitting mash-up of worldy psychedelia, funked-up soaring electronica and swirling cosmic freak-outs. Brilliantly innovative, eminently satisfying groovers.

            TRACK LISTING

            Betty Dreams Of Green Men
            Can I Get The Real Stuff
            Crystal Run
            TV Do Tell
            The String Game
            Skull Pop
            Dog In The Mirror
            Dose Rate

            DFA hit us up with  "Echo", the first album for the label from acclaimed Norwegian avant garde pop vocalist Nils Bech. A busy stage actor and singer already well known in his native Norway for three albums released on Oslo’s Fysisk Format, "Echo" marks a pivotal turning point for Bech and something of a radical sonic departure too. The keys to this change lie with Bech’s new collaborator, the young underground DJ, producer and beat maker Drippin’, known for his work with American rap artists such as LE1F and Cakes Da Killa. As a result, where his previous work was strange, ethereal and otherworldly - completely and utterly unique - ‘Echo’ throbs with a renewed sense of vigour and urgency, without losing any of the idiosyncratic beauty which marked Bech’s work before. 


            TRACK LISTING

            Waiting
            Too Little Too Late
            Glimpse Of Hope
            Please Stay
            Drip, Drip
            Let Go
            Echo
            Jealousy
            A Sudden Sickness

            Panagiotis Melidis started writing music as Larry Gus (λάρυγγας [larigas], Greek for larynx) in 2006, after his previous band, the bass and drums duo Ginger, parted ways. Initially his music combined sample-based constructions and psychedelic pop melodies, merged into an infinitely dense amount of layers and polyrhythms. He soon became known for his energetic and chaotic improvised live performances that involve intricate layering of vocals, drums, and electronics… along with lively stage banter.

            On his new DFA album, "I Need New Eyes" (a title inspired by a Marcel Proust misquotation), moving slowly out of his sample-based roots and using clearer songwriting structures as his starting point, he stares intensively into his obsessions, anxieties and inadequacies, namely failure, humiliation, subservience, submission, and comparisons with other musicians’ careers, always through the prism of a provincial outsider.


            TRACK LISTING

            1. Black Veil Of Fail
            2. NP Complete
            3. A Set Of Replies
            4. Taking The Personal Away
            5. Belong To Love
            6. All Graphs Explored
            7. The Sun Describes
            8. Nazgonya (Paper Spike)

            DFA Records are proud to announce the new album from Slim Twig.

            ‘Thank You For Stickin’ With Twig’ is to date the most sonically immersive album in Twig’s discography.

            Where some records have focused explicitly on sample-based songwriting, while others have been completely live-recorded, the new album arrives at a perfectly produced fusion of fidelities. Twig flirts here with a variety of vibes, most often opting for a three-dimensional approach whereby a warped tape aura is overlaid with colourful laser-cut keyboard and guitar melodies. A fetishization of analogue texture is married to a digital approach.

            It's a fuzz-heavy psych-pop fest with hints of early Syd Barrett era Pink Floyd. 

            TRACK LISTING

            Slippin’ Slidin’
            A Woman’s Touch (It’s No Coincidence)
            She Stickin’ With Twig
            Textiles On Mainstreet
            Stone Rollin’ (Musical Emotion)
            Roll Red Roll (Song For Steubenville)
            You Got Me Goin’…
            Fog Of Sex (N.S.I.S)
            Fadeout Killer
            Trip Thru Bells
            … Out Of My Mind
            Live In, Live On Your Era
            Cannabis

            Delia Gonzalez

            In Remembrance

            DFA Records are proud to announce the release of "In Remembrance", a multimedia project by acclaimed contemporary artist Delia Gonzalez. The project originated as a 2010 solo show of the same name at Galleria Fonti in Naples, Italy, and was further realized in 2012, with additional work, as part of the exhibition I Must Not Stop To Rest Here in Cologne, Germany. The project was further exhibited in Zurich. Both exhibitions were built around four 16mm ballet dance films, accompanied by the music composed by Gonzalez. In her words, “The film is meant to re-create the fleeting sensation of inspiration - that sacred feeling when suddenly your mind clears and you know exactly what you’re meant to create and become.”

            The original piano score was initially inspired by a text by Henry Miller as well as a theory by spiritual teacher George Gurdjieff, which states that “to play scales is to become more in tune with your inner self.” This coincided conceptually with the music that Delia had been making at the time.

            Musically, 'In Remembrance' finds Delia Gonzalez again straddling the lines drawn between the fine art and pop worlds. This time, instead of the cosmic, arpeggiated synths of 'The Days of Mars', we are presented with something even more beautiful. The music is immediately soothing and hypnotic, yet it also maintains a sinister undertone. Suspense and tension are expressed in a deceptively simple fashion, providing a soundtrack both mesmerizing and melancholy for the dancers in the film. Delicate layers of piano wind around each other, reflected in the mirrored motions of the dancers, filmed in leering close-ups. The four compositions combine to create a 30 minute avant-classical suite, bringing to mind Satie, or something plucked from Italy’s iconic Cramps Records in the seventies (John Cage’s Cheap Imitation is an reasonable comparison), or perhaps an alternate score to the arthouse horror film Don’t Look Back by Nicolas Roeg.

            The the album also features remixes by live collabator Bryce Hackford. Bryce takes Delia’s exquisite piano score and loops, stretches, and consolidates it. There’s a range of treatments at play here - some pieces are layered with gauzy left-field electronic pulses while Track IV get a 4/4 dancefloor makeover, recommended to fans of both classic Detroit techno and newer left-field stars such as Actress. Asked to briefly discuss his mission statement in creating these remixes, Bryce simply stated that he wished that his remixes “maintain the hypnotic and simple beauty of the originals while opening them up to new spaces.”.

            CD and double LP formats include a DVD featuring ballet performances set to the music of "In Remembrance".

            For fans of Nils Frahm, Kiasmos, Hauschka, Philip Glass, A Winged Victory For The Sullen.

            TRACK LISTING

            I
            II
            III
            IV
            Remix I
            Remix II
            Remix III
            Remix IV


            Latest Pre-Sales

            105 NEW ITEMS

            E-newsletter —
            Sign up
            Back to top