Larry Gus

Larry Gus - Years Not Living
Larry Gus - Years Not Living

Larry Gus - Years Not Living

$5.00

Inspired by the rural environment of his hometown of Veria, Greece, multi-instrumentalist / singer / producer Panagiotis Melidis started writing music as Larry Gus (from the Greek larigas, or larynx) in 2006, soon after the early demise of his previous band Ginger (a bass and drums duo with a sound similar to the early-’00s Providence scene, paired with hip hop overtones).

Melidis initially composed production music, and later on earned a reputation for intense and chaotic live performances. He retained Ginger’s primitive aesthetics of groove based music, along with an obsession for late-’60s / early-’70s free jazz, and combined them with sample-based techniques and crystal-clear psychedelic pop melodies, all merged into infinitely dense layers and polyrhythms.

Stitches, his first proper full-length, was released in 2009 for Greek hip hop label Cast-A-Blast, and Melidis began a yearlong residency at the Music Technology Group in Barcelona as an intern and postgraduate student. He then returned back to Veria to work on his next project, Years Not Living, an album inspired by Georges Perec’s 1978 book Life: A Users Manual and Lucio Battisti’s 1974 album Anima Latina. The sessions yielded a staggering 85 songs, and the entire process, set amidst Greece’s financial crisis, was documented and will be part of the feature film My Friend Larry Gus (directed by Vasilis Katsoupis), to be released in 2013.

Pared down to ten tracks, Years Not Living incorporates a wealth of diverse styles, ranging from ’60s / ’70s psychedelia and pop to hip hop and more.

Tracklisting:

  1. With All Your Eyes Look
  2. The Night Patrols (A Man Asleep)
  3. Taxonomies
  4. The Sun Plagues
  5. The Eternal and the Ephemeral
  6. Merely Today
  7. Pericles
  8. In Violet Ink (Misprints)
  9. The Percival Seascapes
  10. Paths Laid Down
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Larry Gus - I Need New Eyes
Larry Gus - I Need New Eyes

Larry Gus - I Need New Eyes

$22.98

DFA Records is pleased to announce I Need New Eyes, the new album from Larry Gus. 2013’s Years Not Living was a masterpiece of composition, pushing sampling to its limits within a conceptual framework provided by Life A User’s Manual, George Perec’s postmodern fiction masterpiece. 

I Need New Eyes treads familiar sonic ground to Larry Gus’ previous works - but his beatmaker percussion, shill falsetto vocals, and found sounds form a gestalt more concise and clear than ever. The references to literature continue -  the title is based on a supposed quote by Proust, “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” This record was completed amidst two life-changing events - the birth of his first child, and his participation in Red Bull Music Academy in Tokyo. (Fellow attendee NV contributes backing vocals on Belong To Love.) He explains, “When you have kids, you realize that all of the infinite branches that you were wishing to explore are starting to being cut violently with a axe (held by the baby), and all infinite choices in your life (and lifestyle) start to shrink and diminish slowly. I decided on the title the moment I got back from Tokyo, upon realising that I could never be able to live there, now that I have a baby”. 

His lyrics are brought to the forefront here - covering a wide variety of anxieties, personal and professional. “Don’t forget, the success of everyone else always includes failed attempts / but why can’t I figure it out for myself” he howls over swirling drum fills on NP-Complete, “No more polite comments / at least not from my friends” he croons in A Set Of Replies. This feeds into an alternate meaning for the title - “I need new, less jealous eyes” because envy and jealousy and bitterness are also things that recur a lot in my lyrics, always related to other musicians and things that they achieve.” 

In spite of the of the heavy conceptual themes, there is a true jubilance to the sonics of the record. Twinkling synths and orchestral stabs mingle with handclaps and a thundering kick drum on All Graphs Explored, while funk guitars and endless layers of percussion and brass build around Larry’s bilingual vocals, climaxing in a double-timed drum solo. This is a record for fans of Caribou, Can, Panda Bear, and self-reflection.

I Need New Eyes is released by DFA Records and [PIAS] Cooperative on October 2, 2015.

Tracklist

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)
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Eric Copeland - Remixes (Panda Bear, Larry Gus, Fhloston Paradigm, Anthony Naples) 12"
Eric Copeland - Remixes (Panda Bear, Larry Gus, Fhloston Paradigm, Anthony Naples) 12"

Eric Copeland - Remixes (Panda Bear, Larry Gus, Fhloston Paradigm, Anthony Naples) 12"

$19.98

Limited editon of 1000 hand-stamped and numbered copies, assembled at DFA in NYC. 

DFA is proud to release a long-gestating 12” single of wild interprations of Eric Copeland’s 2013 album “Joke In The Hole”. The Black Dice member received universal acclaim for the record, “Fringe though Copeland may be, this album is a serious coup for DFA—he walks the line between complete nuttiness and outright accessibility, and ends up with one of his best records to date.” (XLR8R) Starting us off is Panda Bear, who adds his trademark falsetto vocals and shuffling percussion, sweetening Eric’s black coffee beats. DFA’s own sonic collagist Larry Gus blends Eric’s mumbled vocals with bright percussion and a vocoded male choir, among many other audio dalliances. Meanwhile, Hyperdub’s Fhloston Paradigm (AKA King Britt) takes aim with his laser cannons, firing volleys at unrelenting waves of marching alien armies, before being swallowed up in a solar flare. Finally, Anthony Naples (Text Records, Trilogy Tapes) brings it back to the club with snaps, claps, and hi-hats, but it sounds like you left ‘em out in the rear window of your car on a sunny day. You know what we mean. 

Tracklisting:

  1. Cheap Treat (Panda Bear Version)
  2. Grapes (Larry Gus Remix)
  3. Cheap Treat (Fhloston Paradigm Remix)
  4. Bobby Strong (Anthony Naples Remix)

 

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Larry Gus - Subservient
Larry Gus - Subservient
Larry Gus - Subservient
Larry Gus - Subservient
Larry Gus - Subservient

Larry Gus - Subservient

$22.98


Tracklist: 
1) Total Diseases (Subservience)
2) A Likely Projection
3) Text of Intent
4) Taped Hands Here
5) In This Position
6) Ayler The Pilot
7) The Sun Sections
8) Readers & Authors
9) Classifying A Disease
10) Bare Concrete (Itea 97-09)

Larry Gus
(real name Panagiotis Melidis) returns to DFA with Subservient, his fourth release for the label. More pop-oriented than his previous albums, Subservient is a lush combination of “crisis funk pop and trad Mediterranean grooves.” Lyrics sung in Greek and English address Larry’s overwhelming struggles with being a father, husband, artist, and human in 2019. In the artist’s own words, this album is about “trying to understand empathy and act with it on everyday life,” as well as “the imperative of empathy above everything else.” 

Subservient is sample-free, a first for Larry, who plays every instrument himself: a drum kit, an SM57 microphone, a guitar, a bass, a TE OP-1 synthesizer, and a Roland JV-1010 synth module. This is fourth-world power pop, as if Alex Chilton was produced by Eno and Hassell. The thoughtful, upbeat arrangements and gentle vocals are spacious and warm, and tend to offset whatever darker tone the lyrics might imply. Larry confronts more acute tensions, such as being a father in Greece during the crisis, and the parallels of a child’s sicknesses and adult ailments, as well as larger, more existential pressures – the grasp of nostalgia, the weight and meaning of making decisions, and the desire to move from hermeticism towards sociability. 

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. 

Larry will also be releasing a 7-inch single alongside the album, which features two A-sides, “Kerkis (Judas-Tree)” and “Foreign Steps,” from the same recording sessions as Subservient. The lyrics to “Kerkis (Judas-Tree)” were written by Efthimis Filippou, an award-winning screenwriter known for his work with director Yorgos Lanthimos on films like Dogtooth, The Lobster, and The Killing of a Sacred Deer. The 7-inch precedes an upcoming audio play, written by Efthimis and scored by Larry, to be produced with the Onassis Stegi (AKA Cultural Center) sometime next year. The audio play will be released on DFA in 2020.
 

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Larry Gus - Kerkis / Judas-Tree 7"
Larry Gus - Kerkis / Judas-Tree 7"
Larry Gus - Kerkis / Judas-Tree 7"
Larry Gus - Kerkis / Judas-Tree 7"

Larry Gus - Kerkis / Judas-Tree 7"

$11.98

Two A-sides, “Kerkis (Judas-Tree)” and “Foreign Steps,” from the same recording sessions as Subservient. The lyrics to “Kerkis (Judas-Tree)” were written by Efthimis Filippou, an award-winning screenwriter known for his work with director Yorgos Lanthimos on films like Dogtooth, The Lobster, and The Killing of a Sacred Deer. The 7-inch precedes an upcoming audio play, written by Efthimis and scored by Larry, to be produced with the Onassis Stegi (AKA Cultural Center) sometime next year. The audio play will be released on DFA in 2020. 

Tracklist

A - Kerkis (Judas-Tree)
B - Foreign Steps
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Eric Copeland (Anthony Naples Remix) + Larry Gus (Boookworms Remix) Split 12"
Eric Copeland (Anthony Naples Remix) + Larry Gus (Boookworms Remix) Split 12"
Eric Copeland (Anthony Naples Remix) + Larry Gus (Boookworms Remix) Split 12"
Eric Copeland (Anthony Naples Remix) + Larry Gus (Boookworms Remix) Split 12"

Eric Copeland (Anthony Naples Remix) + Larry Gus (Boookworms Remix) Split 12"

$14.98

 

Limited edition of 500 blue label hand-stamped singles featuring two wildly left-field remixes of two wildly left-field DFA artists. MP3s will arrive when these tracks are released digitally, at some point in the future.

Tracklist

A - Bobby Strong (Anthony Naples Remix)

B - The Night Patrols (A Man Asleep)(Bookworms Remix)

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Larry Gus - With All Your Eyes Look (Remixes) 12"
Larry Gus - With All Your Eyes Look (Remixes) 12"

Larry Gus - With All Your Eyes Look (Remixes) 12"

$12.98

Larry Gus releases another single from his DFA debut LP “Years Not Living”. This time it is the album’s  lead-off track, entitled “With All Your Eyes Look”. 

There are 3 remixes as well as a gorgeous  If approaching the song from it’s literary roots and inspiration (Georges Perec’s “Life: A User’s Manual”) is all too much, the post modern take on straight up driving urgent & dramatic psychedelic rock music should be just sufficient. The song is a perfect summation of all the talents that make Larry Gus such a unique talent. The mathematical layering of musical elements both grandiose and minuscule combine to make one of the most engaging singles of the summer.

The single has been remixed by three quite diverse artists and producers: Cut Hands (William Bennett of White House fame), Black Deer (aka Willie Burns) & Tuff Sherm (aka Dro Carey). All tracks lean on the percussive and manic syncopations of the original track but spin it out into very unique and surprising directions.

Tracklisting:

  1. With All Your Eyes Look
  2. With All Your Eyes Look (Tuff Sherm Remix)
  3. With All Your Eyes Look (Black Deer Remix)
  4. With All Your Eyes Look (Cut Hands Remix)
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