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You must surrender. Because if you’ve followed Naum Gabo over the past 15 years – across various 12-inches, styles, and notable labels - and you’re listening to “F. Lux,” their first proper album, then you’re probably wondering how you wound up here, all the way down, barely able to see through the brain-clogging atmosphere and towering low-end. “F. Lux” is a deep, enthralling listen, alternating between moments of pounding, world-ending techno (“Schinokapsala” and “This 1”) and sharply imagined, surrealist scenes painted with metallic machines (“Aora” and “Haerstag”). There is light to be found in the darkness, but the only way out is through. Naum Gabo are Glasgow’s Jonnie Wilkes (also known as one-half of DJ duo Optimo) and James Savage (prolific mastering engineer). F. Lux was written and produced entirely by them at their Glasgow Hottrax Studios and mastered by James Savage. The album’s front cover artwork is a painting by cherished Scottish painter, Andrew Cranston. The vinyl was pressed at MPO in France using lacquers cut by Bob Weston in Chicago.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Aora
A2. Tolis
A3. Schinokapsala
A4. Hebust Cometh
B1. Haerstag
B2. This 1
B3. Nothing In My Hand
B4. Parasymptofelia

Dickie Landry Featuring JD Twitch

Hang The Rich

Dickie Landry’s saxophones have challenged, soothed, and blown minds around the world in his lengthy career as a jazz and avant-garde blower of the highest regard. He was a founding member of the Phillip Glass Ensemble and (according to Wikipedia lore) introduced Paul Simon to zydeco, one of the indigenous sounds of his native southern Louisiana. Rarely, though, does Dickie’s saxophone make you want to get up and dance like a crazy person.

Such is the effect of “Hang The Rich,” a nugget of slinky, ecstatic punk-funk that was until recently completely lost to the sands of time. Recorded in 1986 (or thereabouts) in New Orleans and featuring vocalist Evelyn Erhard, percussionist Billy Ware, drummer Ricky Sebastian and Dickie himself on saxophones and a Roland Jupiter 4 synthesizer, it’s the kind of song that compels you to move any which way you can, drunk on indignance and the power of satan’s music.

The track came to DFA via LCD Soundsystem’s Korey Richey, who knows Dickie from back home in Louisiana. After a lengthy search, we located the original tapes in a storage locker somewhere in the Southeast and finally were able to get a clean, quality transfer done here at DFA HQ.

From there, we only had one person in mind for a more DJ-friendly edit: Glasgow’s JD Twitch, one half of Optimo and a selector of similarly puckish spirit. Twitch’s ability to contextualize these older, skronkier sounds for a modern dancefloor are in full display on his version, which hits hard and jagged but then opens up into those ineffable rapturous moments.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: JD Twitch on DFA with a song called "Hang The Rich"? We were already won over! Add veteran Louisiana avantgarde saxophonist Dicky Landry for extra oddball pointage and you've got an indignant, punk-funk romp to kick off the 2024 in suitably rousing form.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Hang The Rich
B1. Hang The Rich (JD Twitch Edit)

The Rapture

Echoes - 2023 Reissue

    The revelation that you didn’t need formal training to start a band in 1977 and the realization that you don’t need to be Merce Cunningham to dance are one and the same.” - Ryan Schreiber, Pitchfork, 2003

    47 minutes. Two sides. A single spine jacket. Confident and deliberate. Lightning in a bottle.

    The Rapture’s Echoes was and is a clear-eyed kick in the teeth, a band at the peak of their powers and producers with an ambitious vision making. a. point.

    The whole “indie crowd finally learns to dance” narrative is overwrought and irrelevant in 2023 - perhaps context is no longer king - but what remains clear is that this album, made by a San Diego punk band who had moved to New York via Seattle, and produced by the DFA in their own studio, where time and gear and ideas both good and bad were aplenty, maintains an energy and search for catharsis that could bulldoze even the most uptight.

    For whatever reason, it’s remained out of print on vinyl since its initial run. (Don’t worry, though, there were a lot of CDR promos lying around.)

    And now, with minimal pageantry, it’s back. Recut by Bob Weston, loud and clear.

    TRACK LISTING

    A1. Olio
    A2. Heaven
    A3. Open Up Your Heart
    A4. I Need Your Love
    A5. The Coming Of Spring
    B1. House Of Jealous Lovers
    B2. Echoes
    B3. Killing
    B4. Sister Saviour
    B5. Love Is All
    B6. Infatuation

    One of Ireland’s finest and DFA mainstay Shit Robot returns to James Murphy’s legendary label, seven years after his last release for the New York heavy hitters.

    Four classic cuts from the twisted machine mind that is Shit Robot. Distinctively punk, daringly futuristic, with a driving heart that’s as warped as it is welcoming. Entrancing body music for basements and big rooms alike, featuring Suzi Horn (Prinzhorn Dance School) and Mutado Pintado (Warmduscher, Paranoid London) on vocals. Recorded in London with Al Doyle (Hot Chip, LCD Soundsystem) and mixed by James Murphy for the DFA.


    TRACK LISTING

    A1. Breathe
    A2. Superstar
    A3. The System
    B1. Hey Creep
    B2. Every Little Bit Helps

    Light Asylum

    Light Asylum - 2023 Reissue

      Light Asylum’s debut LP came out in 2012, a time before streaming really gained critical mass and before vinyl came back in a big way. It was a weird in-between era, like both the recent past and ancient history.

      History has been kind to Light Asylum. For one, whatever limited vinyl copies were pressed in the initial run fetch stupid prices on Discogs. And the critical shrug that welcomed its release now seems irrelevant. This is top-notch, black-clad, spiritually punishing synth-pop, perfectly and carefully programmed and soaring on the back of lead singer Shannon Funchess’ superhuman voice.

      Side A, with rampages like “IPC,” is heavier and faster than Side B, which opens with a slow, serene, goosebump-inducing track titled “Angel Tongue” and finished with the near ecstatic “A Certain Person.”

      Package includes a four-color gatefold jacket, printed insert, and 24” x 36” poster.

      TRACK LISTING

      1. Hour Fortress
      2. Pope Will Roll
      3. IPC
      4. Heart Of Dust
      5. Sins Of The Flesh
      6. Angel Tongue
      7. Shallow Tears
      8. At Will
      9. End Of Days
      10. A Certain Person

      LCD Soundsystem

      New Body Rhumba

      Stretch 'em out and shake off the cobwebs - LCD Soundsystem have returned, in recorded form, from a 5-year hibernation. 'new body rhumba' was written and recorded for the new Noah Baumbach film, White Noise, which is an adaptation of the Don DeLillo novel. It’s classic LCD, all tight and brash, with a coda headed for the second star from the right and straight on 'till morning.

      Single-sided 12'' vinyl, mastered and cut at 45rpm by Bob 'Sparklebear' Weston at Chicago Mastering Service, pressed at MPO in France.

      TRACK LISTING

      A1. New Body Rhumba

      Various Artists

      DFA Records Compilation #2

        First time on vinyl, fully remastered and resequence by James and Bob Weston.

        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 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

        SIDE A
        Black Leotard Front - Casual Friday
        SIDE B
        J.O.Y. - Sunplus (DFA Remix)
        The Juan MacLean - I Robot
        The Juan MacLean - Dance Hall Modulator Dub
        SIDE C
        Delia Gonzalez & Gavin Russom - Rise (DFA Remix)
        Black Dice - Wasteder
        J.O.Y. - Sunplus
        SIDE D
        LCD Soundsystem - Yeah (Pretentious Version)
        The Rapture - Sister Saviour (DFA Dub)
        SIDE E
        Liquid Liquid - Bellhead
        LCD Soundsystem - Yeah (Crass Version)
        SIDE F
        Delia Gonzalez & Gavin Russom - El Monte
        The Rapture - Alabama Sunshine
        SIDE G
        Pixeltan - Get Up / Say What (DFA Remix)
        LCD Soundsystem - Beat Connection (Extended Disco Dub)
        SIDE H
        Pixeltan - That’s The Way I Like It
        Black Dice - Endless Happiness (EYE Remix)
        The Juan MacLean - Less Than Human


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