CD

What's old is now new again.
The Clouds - The Clouds LP
The Clouds - The Clouds LP
The Clouds - The Clouds LP
The Clouds - The Clouds LP
The Clouds - The Clouds LP
The Clouds - The Clouds LP
The Clouds - The Clouds LP
The Clouds - The Clouds LP
The Clouds - The Clouds LP

The Clouds - The Clouds LP

$61.98

LIMITED TO 250 COPIES WORLDWIDE

FIRST-EVER VINYL RELEASE OF A LITTLE-HEARD CULT RELEASE FROM THE EARLY 2000S

REMASTERED AND CUT AT 45RPM BY BOB WESTON.

ORIGINAL GRAMMY-NOMINATED ARTWORK TRANSPOSED BY MIKE VADINO.

SINGLE LP HOUSED IN A CRAFT STOCK GATEFOLD WITH A TIPPED-IN FOLD-OUT FEATURING LYRICS, LINER NOTES, AND PHOTOS. PLUS A FUZZY CLOUD ON THE FRONT. (YES, IT'S EXPENSIVE. IT COST A LOT TO MAKE THEM THIS WAY!)

“no, you can’t take them was a dfa office staple for the better part of 10 years. we were hungover and cynical, but this song always got through to a very human part of every one of us. kids listing what you can’t take with you when you die: a basketball. a radio. a clarinet. my mom. it’s a great DJ set ender, too, repeating “all you take is love”—like a lost track making weirds on mushrooms weep at the loft or something, but new and vital. the entire record is filled with moments like this. darkness and light? how will i know? it’s impossible not to care about this music.” 

- James Murphy

In 2003, The Coleman Center, an Alabama non-profit arts organization, welcomed Stuart Hyatt as an artist-musician in residence. The center, which encourages and supports projects that engage and reflect the unique surrounding community, invited Hyatt to explore local music.

Four weeks later, he emerged with The Clouds.

Hyatt, reckoning with the notion of mortality, had written and recorded songs with a variety of local citizens, social groups, and schoolchildren.

The result is a record that is plainly, if not stylistically, Americana - a patchwork of voices sown together by some simple songs about the one thing we all experience.

The original release was super DIY - Hyatt’s grandparents helped him assemble the packaging, which also somehow managed to score a Grammy nomination in the category. A copy of the CD somehow wound up in the DFA offices, where it was shared and beloved but still sat until 2020, when we decided it may finally be worth trying to re-release on vinyl.

That process took two years and an insane attention to detail, but the final product is part and parcel with the original project - a unique document of a once-in-a-lifetime collaboration.

View product
Black Meteoric Star 3x12" Bundle
Black Meteoric Star 3x12" Bundle

Black Meteoric Star 3x12" Bundle

$35.00

Originally conceived as a series of 3x12" singles, the first blast of Black Meteoric Star tracks ended up coming together on a self-titled "album" in 2009. It being 2009 and all, the collection only came out digitally and on CD (?). It never got a proper vinyl release.

So, this is the next best thing: all three original BMS twelves, purchasable as a unit, at a special bundled price.

View product
Sinkane - Mars

Sinkane - Mars

from $5

Sinkane - Mars

Sinkane - Mars

$5.00

The DFA debut of Ahmed Gallab (Of Montreal, Yeasayer, Caribou) housed in a heavy tip-on jacket with printed inner.

Tracklist:

  1. Runnin'
  2. Jeeper Creeper
  3. Lady C'mon
  4. Making Time
  5. Warm Spell
  6. Love Sick
  7. Mars
  8. Caparundi
    View product
    Black Dice - Miles of Smiles
    Black Dice - Miles of Smiles

    Black Dice - Miles of Smiles

    $5.00 $9.99

    Smiles for miles. The Black Dice classic comes with Miles of Smiles on the A-side and Trip Dude Delay to the B-side in a beautifully collaged sleeve.

    Tracklisting:

    1. Miles of Smiles
    2. Trip Dude Delay
    View product
    Prinzhorn Dance School - Clay Class
    Prinzhorn Dance School - Clay Class

    Prinzhorn Dance School - Clay Class

    $5.00

    The return of DFA Veterans Prinzhorn Dance School. Single LP features many fine songs, including "I Want You", "Your Fire Has Gone Out", and (my personal favorite) "Crisis Team", which you may listen to below. Includes an instant digital download.

    Tracklisting:

    1. Happy In Bits
    2. Usurper
    3. Seed, Crop, Harvest
    4. I Want You
    5. Your Fire Has Gone Out
    6. Crisis Team
    7. The Flora and the Fauna of Britain In Bloom
    8. Turn Up the Light
    9. Sing Orderly
    10. Right Night Kay West
    11. Shake the Jar
    View product
    Shit Robot - From The Cradle To The Rave
    Shit Robot - From The Cradle To The Rave

    Shit Robot - From The Cradle To The Rave

    $5.00 $27.99

    The debut album from DFA veteran Shit Robot, this classic double LP comes in an adorably illustrated gatefold sleeve, and features vocal contributions by James and Nancy of LCD, Planningtorock, Alexis from Hot Chip, and Juan Maclean. Highly recommended, you can't beat this price! Comes with a bonus CD copy AND an instant digital download. You have no excuse.

    Tracklisting:

    1. Tuff Enuff?
    2. I Found Love
    3. Losing My Patience
    4. Take 'Em Up
    5. Grim Receiver
    6. Simple Things (Work It Out)
    7. Answering Machine
    8. I Got a Feeling
    9. Triumph!!!
    View product
    The Rapture - In The Grace Of Your Love
    The Rapture - In The Grace Of Your Love

    The Rapture - In The Grace Of Your Love

    $5.00

    CD now available.

    1. Sail Away
    2. Miss You
    3. Never Die Again
    4. Blue Bird
    5. In the Grace Of Your Love
    6. Roller Coaster
    7. Children
    8. How Deep Is You Love?
    9. Can You Find A Way?
    10. Come Back To Me
    11. It Takes Time To Be A Man
    View product
    Eric Copeland - Joke In The Hole 2xLP
    Eric Copeland - Joke In The Hole 2xLP

    Eric Copeland - Joke In The Hole 2xLP

    $32.98

    Eric Copeland's debut album as a solo artist on DFA.

    The double vinyl is covered inside and out with collages by Eric himself. Double heavyweight vinyl with a download card.

    Tracklisting:

    1. Rokzi
    2. Grapes
    3. Tinkerbell
    4. Flushing Meats
    5. Babes In The Woods
    6. Bobby Strong
    7. Shoo Rah
    8. Cheap Treat
    9. Kash Donation
    10. A Little Tit
    11. New Leather Boogie
    View product
    Factory Floor - Digital Download
    Factory Floor - Digital Download

    Factory Floor - Factory Floor

    $5.00 $27.99

    Yellow jacket + Black vinyl edition. 

    At long last, Factory Floor presents their highly anticipated self-titled debut album. A vivid snapshot of a progressive band smashing through yet another ceiling, it’s the first full-length statement from the group that earned a powerful reputation on the strength of the “Fall Back” and “Two Different Ways” singles for DFA—not to mention early releases for Optimo Music and Blast First Petite. Leading up to the release of Factory Floor, the band will play select European festival dates this summer.  

    Produced and recorded by the group in their North London warehouse space on a vintage mixing desk originally used by Dave Stewart three decades ago to record all the Eurythmics’ early hits, Factory Floor is a visceral trip through the band’s repertoire. The record opens with “Turn It Up,” their most minimal track to date, mixed in astonishing detail by Timothy “Q” Wiles (VCMG, Afrika Bambaataa). “Here Again” is almost (but not quite) their pop song, replete with cascading arpeggios counterbalanced by bubbly synth melody lines and plaintive vocals. 

    Factory Floor also contains the definitive version of “Two Different Ways,” followed by the muscular and sleek “Fall Back.” “How You Say” finds the band channelling New York’s dance underground—think ESG and Delta Five. “Work Out” is anything but; despite the desultory title, it is in fact sinister street-sound electro. The album closes out with “Breathe In,” a funkified acid disco classic. 

    Perhaps the most unlikely aspect of Factory Floor’s rise to notoriety is their versatility. Even their most ardent of fans describe their sound as punishing, yet they are equally at home playing raves, alternative festivals, art galleries, cinemas, nightclubs and rock shows; on top of that they’re as likely to collaborate with members of Throbbing Gristle and New Order (not to mention Richard H. Kirk of Cabaret Voltaire, Simon Fisher Turner and Peter Gordon) as they are with contemporary artists such as Haroon Mirza and Hannah Sawtell.

    Tracklisting:

    1. Turn It Up
    2. Here Again
    3. One
    4. Fall Back
    5. Two
    6. How You Say
    7. Two Different Ways
    8. Three
    9. Work Out
    10. Breathe In
    View product
    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
    View product
    Shit Robot - We Got A Love
    Shit Robot - We Got A Love

    Shit Robot - We Got A Love

    $5.00

    DFA Records is proud to present We Got a Love, the sophomore full-length by Shit Robot a.k.a. Dublin native Marcus Lambkin. Recorded in Germany and New York, the nine-track album includes the killer recent singles, “Feels Real” and “We Got a Love.” 

    Like Lambkin’s 2010 debut From the Cradle to the Rave, We Got a Love sports an array of guests that include DFA veterans Nancy Whang, Museum of Love and Luke Jenner (The Rapture), plus hip-house hero Lidell Townsell and Australian singer Holly Backler. The album’s distinctive artwork was created in collaboration with Irish graffiti artist Maser.

     Track List:

    1. The Secret (Feat. Reggie Watts)
    2. Dingbat (Feat. Museum Of Love)
    3. Do That Dance (Feat. Nancy Whang)
    4. Do It (Right) [Feat. Lidell Townsell]
    5. Feels Real (Feat. Luke Jenner)
    6. Space Race
    7. Feels Like (Feat. Holly Backler)
    8. We Got A Love (Feat. Reggie Watts)
    9. Tempest
    View product
    Black Meteoric Star - Death Tunnel b/w World Eater 12"
    Black Meteoric Star - Death Tunnel b/w World Eater 12"

    Black Meteoric Star - Death Tunnel b/w World Eater 12"

    $14.98

    Black Meteoric Star is the latest project by longtime DFA alumni Gavin Russom. The project is inspired equal parts Euro-disco, wonky early electronic body music from America's Midwest and an always present fascination with the outer reaches of global psychedelic rock. Gavin Russom began the recordings for Black Meteoric Star sometime in 2006. It was at this time that Carl Craig remixed Delia Gonzalez & Gavin Russom's single "Relevee", making it one of the years biggest dance club anthems. Three vinyl 12" singles by Black Meteoric Star will be released on DFA Records with extended original versions in 2009 along with a full self-titled CD that edits and compiles all six singles. There will be an edition of 100 of each 12" hand stamped and accompanied by a series of posters also designed by Russom. These releases will follow a narrative line and the six pieces of music tell a story of clubbing and the long journey through the night and into the next day. In this project, Russom carries his ability to create rich sonic landscapes to the dance floor using minimal but intense arrangements and high-energy repetition. 

    The first single "Death Tunnel" / "World Eater" tells the story of the personal entry into darkness. In "Death Tunnel" the rhythmic lines lose their edges as they repeat in a tense nature. We are driving forward fast and this somehow creates a particular kind of ecstasy. As in twilight, borders become unclear and the boundary between inner and outer becomes soft. Sounds like electronic waves connects the experience to the ocean, another vast, unknowable place of transformation. "World Eater" was created under circumstances such that even Gavin has no idea how many of the sounds were created. It has been said to suggest a panther prowling through the jungle, looking for prey. Considering the above, that seems appropriate enough. Rhode Island native Gavin Russom now lives and works in Berlin. He has produced many remixes recently, including a new single by Croatian techno artist Petar Dundov, New York's avant garde duo Palms and a remix featured on the upcoming soundtrack for the remake of the movie Tron.
    Tracklist
    A - Death Tunnel
    B - World Eater
    View product
    Black Meteoric Star - Dominatron b/w Anthem 12"
    Black Meteoric Star - Dominatron b/w Anthem 12"

    Black Meteoric Star - Dominatron b/w Anthem 12"

    $14.98

    Black Meteoric Star is the latest project by longtime DFA alumni Gavin Russom. The project is inspired equal parts Euro-disco, wonky early electronic body music from America's Midwest and an always present fascination with the outer reaches of global psychedelic rock. Gavin Russom began the recordings for Black Meteoric Star sometime in 2006. It was at this time that Carl Craig remixed Delia Gonzalez & Gavin Russom's single "Relevee", making it one of the years biggest dance club anthems. Three vinyl 12" singles by Black Meteoric Star will be released on DFA Records with extended original versions in 2009 along with a full self-titled CD that edits and compiles all six singles. There will be an edition of 100 of each 12" hand stamped and accompanied by a series of posters also designed by Russom. These releases will follow a narrative line and the six pieces of music tell a story of clubbing and the long journey through the night and into the next day. In this project, Russom carries his ability to create rich sonic landscapes to the dance floor using minimal but intense arrangements and high-energy repetition. 

    The second single "Dominatron / Anthem" takes place after midnight. The animal energy encountered in "World Eater" is released and splits itself into female and male parts. This 12" is the story of their struggle for power over one another. "Dominatron" is the feminine side and "Anthem" is the masculine side. As in a possession ritual, each side appears and does its dance. Rhode Island native Gavin Russom now lives and works in Berlin. He has produced many remixes recently, including a new single by Croatian techno artist Petar Dundov, New York's avant garde duo Palms and a remix featured on the upcoming soundtrack for the remake of the movie Tron.

    Tracklist

    A - Dominatron

    B - Anthem

    View product
    Black Meteoric Star - Dreamcatcher b/w Dawn 12"
    Black Meteoric Star - Dreamcatcher b/w Dawn 12"
    Black Meteoric Star - Dreamcatcher b/w Dawn 12"
    White Label

    Black Meteoric Star - Dreamcatcher b/w Dawn 12"

    $9.98

    Black Meteoric Star is the latest project by longtime DFA alumni Gavin Russom. The project is inspired equal parts Euro-disco, wonky early electronic body music from America's Midwest and an always present fascination with the outer reaches of global psychedelic rock. Gavin Russom began the recordings for Black Meteoric Star sometime in 2006. It was at this time that Carl Craig remixed Delia Gonzalez & Gavin Russom's single "Relevee", making it one of the years biggest dance club anthems. Three vinyl 12" singles by Black Meteoric Star will be released on DFA Records with extended original versions in 2009 along with a full self-titled CD that edits and compiles all six singles. There will be an edition of 100 of each 12" hand stamped and accompanied by a series of posters also designed by Russom. These releases will follow a narrative line and the six pieces of music tell a story of clubbing and the long journey through the night and into the next day.

    In this project, Russom carries his ability to create rich sonic landscapes to the dance floor using minimal but intense arrangements and high-energy repetition. The third and final chapter is "Dream Catcher / Dawn". In "Dream Catcher" it becomes clear that neither the masculine nor the feminine side can win. They have to coexist, and can, when each side acknowledges its own strengths and resolves to use them toward a mutual end. In terms of the club land metaphor this is the point in the night where people hook up. As the longest of the six tracks its story is about total surrender. For me it evokes both lovers surrendering to each other and the devotee surrendering to his God. At this moment we acknowledge that there is no way out but through. "Dawn" comes. The bass line echoes the melody of "Death Tunnel", signaling return. Although we are beginning again everything looks, sounds and feels different. We are much stronger now. As the sun comes up and edges begin to become clear again, we drive slowly through the still sleeping city. Rhode Island native Gavin Russom now lives and works in Berlin. He has produced many remixes recently, including a new single by Croatian techno artist Petar Dundov, New York's avant garde duo Palms and a remix featured on the upcoming soundtrack for the remake of the movie Tron.

    Tracklist

    A - Dreamcatcher

    B - Dawn

    View product
    The Juan Maclean - In A Dream 2xLP
    The Juan Maclean - In A Dream 2xLP

    The Juan Maclean - In A Dream 2xLP

    $32.98

    'In A Dream' is the third album from The Juan Maclean. If anything, this new LP is further evidence of the "undeniable creative chemistry between house music wizard Juan Maclean & vocalist / former LCD Soundsystem member Nancy Whang". (Pitchfork) The album takes its musical cues from Moroder's Munich to the Funky Nassau sounds of Compass Point and to anytime in downtown NYC.

    An album of high anticipated, brand new material on the heels of The Juan Maclean's acclaimed club bangers from the last couple of years. Features singles "A Place Called Space" and "A Simple Design". Everyone that has heard the record loves the hell out of it, and I promise you will too. 

    Tracklisting:

    1. A Place Called Space
    2. Here I Am
    3. Love Stops Here
    4. You Were A Runaway
    5. Running Back To You
    6. I've Waited So Long
    7. Charlotte
    8. A Simple Design
    9. The Sun Will Never Set On Our Love
    View product
    Sinkane - Mean Love
    Sinkane - Mean Love

    Sinkane - Mean Love

    $5.00

    It's soul music! A truly universal sound, uniting rhythm and styles from our world over to help you move, relate, and be.

    Tracklisting:

    1. How We Be
    2. New Name
    3. Yacha
    4. Young Trouble
    5. Moonstruck
    6. Mean Love
    7. Hold Tight
    8. Galley Boys
    9. Son
    10. Omdurman
    View product
    Museum Of Love - Museum Of Love
    Museum Of Love - Museum Of Love

    Museum Of Love - Museum Of Love

    $5.00

    Museum of Love is the musical project of Pat Mahoney (Founding member of LCD Soundsystem) and Dennis McNany (Jee Day).

    Longtime friends in New York, McNany and Mahoney found a similar sensibility and a shared vocabulary for interpreting surroundings, something that began with their remix of Battles’ “My Machines feat. Gary Numan” and extended into their creation of a full length record together.

    Naming their duo in ode to Daniel Johnston’s song of the same name, Mahoney divulges, “I had always loved the song, and had been thinking of what such an edifice would contain when we were trying to name the project.” McNany continues, “Pat’s a sculptor, I’m a painter, we make music and museums are sacred spaces and love is an elusive thing.”

    Museum of Love is the result of a songwriting collaboration between McNany and Mahoney, with McNany writing most of the music, and Mahoney most of the words. Together they edited and arranged the tracks in the studio. Mahoney says the process of collaboration was energizing, while McNany simply explains, “making the record was pure pleasure. Waiting for it to come out has been the hardest thing.”

    “Museum of Love moves at a stately pace here, offering a slow and steady chugger that wraps itself in gauzy vocal layers and takes its sweet time reaching its climactic peak.” - Pitchfork 

     

    Tracklist: 

    1. Horizontalator
    2. Down South
    3. In Infancy
    4. FATHERS
    5. The Who's Who of Who Cares
    6. Learned Helplessness In Rats (Disco Drummer)
    7. Monotronic
    8. The Large Glass
    9. And All The Winners (Fuck You Buddy)
    View product
    Dan Bodan - Soft
    Dan Bodan - Soft

    Dan Bodan - Soft

    $5.00

    Comes in a custom matte sleeve with spot gloss embellishments. Album illustrations courtesy of contemporary artist Julien Ceccaldi. This is one of the nicest records we have ever pressed. I promise. 

    ---

    “I write about the things I know, but it should be interesting for other people. So I want it to be like a really great roman-a-clef, or reading your older sisters diary.” - Dan Bodan

    “Soft”, the new album from Dan Bodan, is a rose-scented journey through millennial love issues, Soundcloud collage, and post-empire paranoia. Co-produced with Physical Therapy and Ville Haimala (Renaissance Man) and featuring M.E.S.H., 18+, Great Skin, Latisha Faulkner, Dena Yago, and Stadium.

    Berlin based songwriter Dan Bodan was born in the wide open Canadian prairies and raised in Montreal. Reared on the city’s underground noise and experimental music scene, Bodan moved to Berlin 8 years ago. Blossoming in the city’s unique mixture of crumbling old-world european values, start-up philanthropy, sleepless techno and epic grey skies, he began writing songs to soundtrack his train rides through the city and make sense of it all.

    Working together with a team of world-class producers, poets and artists, he writes songs to fit comfortably in that space between the finger and the mousepad, the bedroom and the club, the earth and the ether.

    “He blows in like a sweet guardian angel over the beat, making a track so light it feels almost like daylight peeking into a dark nightclub.”
    - The Fader

    “The real star is his voice, which quivers as it rises and falls through each line, powerful but slightly fragile”
    - Resident Advisor

     Track List: 

    1. A Soft Opening
    2. Anonymous
    3. Romeo
    4. Soft As Rain
    5. For Heaven's Sake (Let's Fall In Love) <3
    6. Reload
    7. Jaws of Life
    8. Rusty
    9. Catching Fire
    10. Good Time Summer

     

    View product
    Slim Twig - A Hound At The Hem
    Slim Twig - A Hound At The Hem

    Slim Twig - A Hound At The Hem

    $5.00

    Slim Twig is the name of a man, not of a band - though he has performed in many a group, some under his own moniker. Boasting a catalogue several underthe- radar releases deep, the Toronto native lays claim to a tremendously original work with his orchestrallyinflected, art rock album, A Hound At The Hem. Self-produced in the fall, 2010, Hound is a suite of narrative songs thematically inspired by Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita. DFA is privileged to reissue this album in advance of the release of Twig’s newest works.

    Upon completing AHATH in 2010, Twig struggled to find wide release for it due to its uncompromising textural onslaught and disregard for genre. This course of events set the stage for the composition and release of Sof’ Sike, a somewhat more conventional set of pop songs released on Paper Bag Records, in 2012. The title of that work refers to Twig’s own conception of Hound as the hard-psych flipside to his work of that period.

    Recorded on Toronto Island in collaboration with fellow Torontonian, Louis Percival, the album features string arrangements by Owen Pallett, and other collaborators including Meg Remy (U.S. Girls), Carl Didur (Zacht Automaat), and the St. Kitts Quartet.

    As a conceptalbum exploring the troubling and the taboo and themes like the transformative power of lust, AHATH can be interpreted as an echolike response to Serge Gainsbourg and JeanClaude Vannier’s Histoire De Melody Nelson. Most of all, AHATH poses the question; where next for Slim Twig, this promising and original auteur?

    1. Heavy Splendour
    2. Clerical Collar
    3. Widow Were You Younger
    4. Shroud By The Sheetful
    5. All This Wanting
    6. Hover On A Sliver
    7. Maintain The Charade
    8. Blonde Ascending (Come Into The Clatter)

     

    View product
    Delia Gonzalez - In Remembrance
    Delia Gonzalez - In Remembrance

    Delia Gonzalez - In Remembrance

    $5.00

    Initial pressing is on pink vinyl! Move quick!

    Delia Gonzalez is a name immediately familiar to DFA fanatics. As the story goes, Delia transplanted from Miami to New York City in the mid-1990s, working in various dance and guerrilla theatre troupes. It was around this time that she met synth wizard Gavin Russom, beginning a series of multi-disciplinary collaborations. Their first release for the label, 2003’s El Monte, was an early demonstration of the fledgling label’s ability to bridge the gap between the avant-garde and the rapidly exploding indie rock world.

    In Remembrance is the next landmark in Delia’s artistic pursuits. 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 films were exhibited in their third incarnation at the Clocktower Gallery in New York City in 2013. Delia enlisted New York underground musicians Bryce Hackford and Alice Cohen to perform a live, electronic adaption of the original piano score. Bryce later contributed four remixes, which are included on this album. Delia explains; “When I lived in Berlin I became good friends with the artist and musician Viktor Timofeev, who kept telling me about his best friend Bryce, who he played music with. In 2012 we were all in Vienna participating in a show entitled You Are Free. There I met Bryce and I instantly loved him. In 2013 I moved to NYC temporarily and ran into him at the New Museum and he said, “we should get together and play”. I took him up on it.”

    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 immediately 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 Dont Look Back by Nicolas Roeg.

    The second disc features remixes by previously mentioned 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.”.

    In Remembrance will be released by DFA Records and [PIAS] Cooperative on April 28, 2015.  

    Tracklist

    A1 - Delia Gonzalez (I)
    A2 - Delia Gonzalez (II)
    B1 - Delia Gonzalez (III)
    B2 - Delia Gonzalez (IV)
    C1 - Bryce Hackford (Remix I)
    C2 - Bryce Hackford (Remix II)
    D1 - Bryce Hackford (Remix III)
    D2 - Bryce Hackford (Remix IV)
    View product
    Prinzhorn Dance School - Home Economics
    Prinzhorn Dance School - Home Economics
    Prinzhorn Dance School - Home Economics
    Prinzhorn Dance School - Home Economics

    Prinzhorn Dance School - Home Economics

    $5.00

    “When our first album came out,” Tobin Prinz (guitar, voice) remembers, “we were awkward, miserable...” “Nervous, uncooperative” chips in Suzi Horn (bass, voice, drums), pausing just long enough for Tobin to supply the punchline - “and now look at us!”  

    Prinzhorn Dance School are still recognisably the same spiky Brighton-based duo whose ultra-rigorous debut cut through the excess of 2008 like a scimitar through bacon fat. But with their trademark stripped-down intensity now winningly off-set by moments of unabashed tenderness, their third album Home Economics continues and even accelerates the move away from austerity and into human warmth begun by its acclaimed 2011 predecessor Clay Class. 

    The starting point for the new record was the band’s “amazing” first US shows - two of their own and a triumphant showing at DFA’s 12th anniversary - in May 2013. Inspired by their American adventure, Prinzhorn Dance School brought the recording process into the heart of their everyday lives. Played and recorded on the move between different flats in Brighton and Hove, then wheeled around town on a hard-drive wrapped in a sleeping bag in a specially-adapted suitcase, Home Economics gave them an escape route from “that frustration you feel when you spend days trying to recapture the intimacy of a particular moment”, Tobin remembers. “This time we could just use the original take, so sometimes these songs are almost like field recordings”. 

    All the best six-track albums - The Fall’s Slates, Orange Juice’s Texas Fever - know exactly what they want to say and how they intend to say it. Home Economics shares that infectious sense of urgency. There’s not an inch of spare meat on it - from Reign’s snatched moment of optimism, through Battlefield’s restorative meeting of minds with an urban fox on a drunken walk home in the early hours, to Let Me Go’s concluding tribute to “a love that won’t rewind and will not be deleted”. Spindly yet sensuous, together and alone, exquisitely sad but somehow full of hope, Prinzhorn Dance School knit together disparate and even opposite fragments into an utterly satisfying whole.

    View product
    Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra - S/T
    Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra - S/T

    Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra - S/T

    $5.00

    Peter Gordon and his Love of Life Orchestra--as a new audience discovered upon hearing the FabricLive.36 compilation, a handpicked mix from LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy and Pat Mahoney that opened and closed with Gordon's "Beginning of the Heartbreak / Don't Don't"--are testament to the incredible musical innovations happening in New York City in the late 1970s. Those two compositions, underpinned with disco and gilded with noisy guitar bursts, hanging piano chords and saxophone wails, exhibit not only Gordon's kaleidoscopic vision as a musician, but his precision as a producer and composer. Featuring avant-experimentalists and downtown legends David Byrne and Arto Lindsay as well as Love of Life Orchestra cofounders Gordon and David Van Tieghem, the tracks shine a light on the work of an artist whose influence on dance music is recognizable more than three decades later. 

    Gordon's hefty contribution to music is given an up-close look with Love of Life Orchestra, a retrospective of the composer's work. Compiled here are the aforementioned singles and songs that show the breadth and quality of Gordon's output. "Extended Niceties" unfurls a dizzying call-and-response between blaring sax and synths, while the expansive "Roses on the Disco Floor" builds in intensity, size and tempo as it nears its epic end. "Still You" and "Beautiful Dreamer" by Justine & The Victorian Punks (a collaborative project with New York-based visual artist Colette) feature disco grooves and sweetly voiced melodies. "Iago's Escape," which begins with dramatic strings and quasi-operatic vocals, unexpectedly incorporates klezmer-influenced clarinet. "That Hat" is a quirky experiment incorporating early hip-hop beats and featuring vocals from pioneer Arthur Russell, New York Doll David Johansen and Rebecca Armstrong.

    The album is rounded out with "Another Heartbreak / Don't Don't Redux," Gordon's own reworking of the seminal opening medley, which freshly reinterprets the original's sax lead and adds new synthesizer parts. Throughout this impressive catalog, harmoniously interwoven strains of jazz, rock and neoclassical, add texture and color to these wonderful songs. Love of Life Orchestra, taken as a whole, serves as ample testimony to the far-reaching scope of Gordon's musical sensibilities and a reminder of his enduring musical legacy.

    Tracklisting:

      1. Beginning of the Heartbreak / Don't Don't
      2. Extended Niceties
      3. Don't Don't (Reprise)
      4. Roses On The Disco Floor
      5. Still You
      6. Beautiful Dreamer
      7. Iago's Escape
      8. That Hat
      9. Another Heartbreak / Don't Don't (Redux)

    View product
    LCD Soundsystem - 45:33 2xLP
    LCD Soundsystem - 45:33 2xLP
    LCD Soundsystem - 45:33 2xLP
    LCD Soundsystem - 45:33 2xLP
    LCD Soundsystem - 45:33 2xLP

    LCD Soundsystem - 45:33 2xLP

    $32.98

    LCD Soundsystem - 45:33 - 2xLP

    Originally released in 2006.

    This album was commissioned by Nike to listen to on an iPod while exercising.

    "Complex, fun, and meticulously put together, 45:33 sounds even better pumping from a home stereo than it does through an iPod while jogging". - All Music

    Original Pitchfork Review, 2006

    Wikipedia Entry

     Tracklist

    A - 45:33

    B - 45:33

    C - 45:33

    D - 45:33

     

    View product
    Slim Twig - Thank You For Stickin' With Twig
    Slim Twig - Thank You For Stickin' With Twig

    Slim Twig - Thank You For Stickin' With Twig

    $5.00

    Thank You For Stickin’ With Twig is the latest long-playing album from the artist known to the world (or at least to his mother) as Slim Twig. Coming out August 7, 2015 on DFA, you may be surprised to know that it represents the fifth album by the Toronto based songwriter / producer. Twig has released these previous records among a swath of EP’s, singles and one-offs, displaying in the process a complete disregard for genre or consistency. The evolution from Contempt!, his sample-stained 2009 debut, through to A Hound At The Hem, his symphonic tribute album to Nabokov’s Lolita (reissued by DFA in 2014), is not entirely linear, although intriguing all the same. Like so many surf-smoothed stones lining the beach shore, briefly unburied only to be discarded once deemed un-skippable, so Twig has gone about seeking the proper rock to cast at just the right angle. One can see why he extends a gratuity to those listeners who've stuck around.

    In what form then, do we now find the twenty-six-year old, self-proclaimed ‘wah wah master’? His record reissued last year was completed in 2011. So one might reasonably ask, what has Twig done since? After producing two albums for U.S. Girls (U.S. Girls on Kraak in 2011, Gem in 2012), and scoring two films (Sight Unseen & We Come As Friends (winner of a Special Jury Award at Sundance, among numerous other accolades), Twig found himself in 2013 at a creative impasse re: his own songwriting. He had been through full band incarnations live and on record. They featured a cast of Toronto heavies (members of Zacht Automaat, etc...). He briefly performed Slim Twig sets as a duo, featuring multimedia artist and musician, Meg Remy (U.S. Girls). They performed sets that combined versions of Twig’s released songs with freely structured improvisations, samples, and brightly melodic, synth textures. Something in this combination of the pop-minded and the cerebrally-produced has rubbed off on the recordings found on Twig’s latest.

    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. It hovers, glamorously caught between a cloud of obscurant, half-speed tape hiss, and the most stoned Jeff Lynne production you’ve ever heard. 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. All the while, we find Twig irreverently raiding classic rock of its symbolism, sexuality, and social ambition for ulterior subversions. In this respect, TYFSWT's closest cousin may be Royal Trux's Accelerator

    Opening cut, 'Slippin Slidin’, establishes itself as a cock rock analogue to Kanye West’s similarly phallic 'On Sight', the bravura Yeezus introduction. We are welcomed by a blast of synth noise, soon followed by sexually agitated lyrics (supported by Meg Remy, whose vocals are featured prominently on much of the record) atop a deafening beat, distorted and sleazy. The immensity of the production (achieved in collaboration with co-producer Anthony Nemet and mixer Steve Chahley) represents an evolution of Twig’s approach, sustained at a fever pitch throughout the album.

    'A Woman’s Touch (It’s No Coincidence)' is a song sympathizing with the perspective of the Beatles’ wives. The song production sounds like a fusion of dub and baroque pop as played by the cartoon band in the Yellow Submarine movie. Many of the songs play referential sonic games like this, discursively incorporating familiar melodies, production styles or ideas (a fuzzy ballad on wage inequality is cheekily titled ‘Textiles On Mainstreet’), only to pair them with incongruous textures or themes. 'Live In, Live On Your Era', a song encouraging an embrace of one’s own cultural circumstance, is consciously styled as the most ‘retro’ sounding cut on the album (Jimmy Page leads and all), seemingly upending the lyrical content. On and on, the jokes and meta-sonic rock commentary continue like so many Zappa-esque indulgences. 

    The centrepiece of the album is composed of two songs sharing the middle of the running time. 'Roll Red Roll (Song For Steubenville)', titled after the football chant of the eponymous town’s high school team, eulogizes the tragedy of the young girl who was the tabloid subject of group sexual abuse (by said football team). Its opening - the most tranquil, dreamy instrumental passage on the record - is harshly interrupted by a mass of pitch-shifted martial drums and wildly panned, distorted fuzz lines. The disturbed atmosphere composes a sonic poem, detailing a narrative through a combination of sound and oblique lyrics (‘Everyone will love / everyone will love / the way you fold / Roll Red Roll’). Side B opens with 'Fog Of Sex (N.S.I.S)'. A cinematic fusion of plastic soul and flute score-for-horror-film, it comprises TYFSWT’s funkiest recording. With voicings from both Twig and Remy, sung from the perspective of someone unwilling to commit to a single gender identity, the song makes overt the album’s subliminal motive. Instability is addressed from a disenfranchised perspective (perhaps as a metaphor for the music itself, which refuses to stabilize or stay put). Twig himself has referred to his ambition of making “a protest album as obscured by smoke” (and what kind of smoke, we wonder?). In swift combination, these two songs make good on that claim. The lyrical voices here take on an (at times) humorously proletarian tone (‘I work a shift, just up the street / cleaning semen off of seats / it’s a way for ends to meet’) that is alien in the contemporary rock landscape, dominated as it is by reheated garage and psych leftovers. 

    The album closes with a triumphantly grandiose cover of Serge Gainsbourg’s instrumental ‘Cannabis’ (released as a 7” single on 4/20, and deliberately echoing Twig’s first LP for DFA, which openly shared its Gainsbourgian debt). The aim is somewhat clearer now. Slim Twig’s latest modulation of voice is to re-contextualize an era of ambition in produced rock music, dislodging the hackneyed and clichéd in the process. Sonically and politically, his aim is to be a rock n’ roll subversive in an era where that claim should rightfully be made by luddite cave-people. Context is everything, and Twig’s gift may be in zeroing in on that. He collages his sounds together (here as eclectic as The Love Below, or any Beck album) in a continuum where pop criticism is always recycling through what it chooses to lend cultural currency, if only for an instant. As of now, he’s sized up rock n’ roll, and determined it seems as good as any other vessel to commandeer for his creative impulse. Power to him. Rock may be dumb as a stone, but even so, now and then it’s smart to be dumb.

     Tracklist

    A1 - Slippin' Slidin' 

    A2 - A Woman's Touch (It's No Coincidence)

    A3 - She Stickin' With Twig

    A4 - Textiles On Mainstreet

    A5 - Stone Rollin' (Musical Emotion)

    A6 - Roll Red Roll (Song For Steubenville)

    A7 - You Got Me Goin'

    B1 - Fog Of Sex (N.S.I.S)

    B2 - Fadeout Killer

    B3 - Trip Thru Bells

    B4 - ...Out Of My Mind

    B5 - Live In, Live On Your Era

    B6 - Cannabis

    View product
    Eric Copeland ‎– Al Anon 12"
    Eric Copeland ‎– Al Anon 12"

    Eric Copeland ‎– Al Anon 12"

    $12.98

    Al Anon concludes Eric Copeland’s two part album entitled Alien In A Garbage Dump (available on CD from Paw Tracks). Where the first half offered a discombobulated collection of radio cross-signaling, here the alien finds its groove for a minute and tidies up the frequencies. There is still something outsiderish here, but with more of an effort to get inside, to play by the rules even? Or maybe the motivation is to sneak something subversive into the norms’ hideout? 

    Since Al Anon was recorded at the same time as two Black Dice albums, there are obvious parallels in the results; an uncompromised sonic landscape. But outside the group setting, Copeland has found places one can only find alone: small inner dialogues and isolated mind caves where an idea may only last a moment. He captures and tweaks these ideas into fragments of many memories; a déjà vu record déjà vu record. Funny characters drop in and out. Songs come and go. Al Anonproves to be a strangely curated time capsule of OUR time right NOW; music where birds beat-box with car-stereo subwoofers and the neighbors’ Espanol sings on top the Sabbath siren. With all this going on, Copeland sometimes disappears into the anonymity, playing a ‘behind-the-scenes’ role, pushing cords and pulling buttons, laughing because the batteries are dying. Here the familiar becomes mysterious and the unknown feels normal and we can listen to this one all day trying to make those distinctions.

    Edition of 500 copies with jaw-droppingly amazing black and white collage artwork by Copeland, screenprinted by VG Kids.

    View product
    Essaie pas - Demain est une autre nuit
    Essaie pas - Demain est une autre nuit

    Essaie pas - Demain est une autre nuit

    $5.00

    Montreal-based electronic duo Essaie pas is comprised of Marie Davidson and Pierre Guerineau. Both are respected musicians in their own right - Marie having released two acclaimed solo records, with Pierre being best known for production work on underground Canadian musicians such as Dirty Beaches and Femminielli. Essaie pas was born on a hot summer night in 2010, releasing some ultra-limited singles which culminated in their debut LP, Nuit de noce (Teenage Menopause Records) in 2013. The mix of drawling guitars, français mumbles, and minimal electronics caught the ear of DFA Records, who booked the pair to open for Factory Floor on their first North American tour.

     The origin story of -Demain est une autre nuit- begins when the band returned from their first European tour to find that they had lost both their studio space and apartment. La Brique, their studio, practice space and renowned underground music institution, had fallen victim to the city’s rapid gentrification and closed permanently. Conflicts with their wacky landlord had also left them without an apartment, leading them to return to Montreal’s winter without many prospects. They lucked into a temporary practice space during the off-hours at the offices of Le Filles Electriques, an independent interdisciplinary festival producer. This space soon became Pierre’s new studio, and Marie’s new home. The many corridors of the empty industrial building also provided a way for Marie to work out in the frigid Montreal winter nights, running “everywhere possible, listening to techno, acid, and italo disco, being mutually inspired by the space and the sounds.” About eight months later, Demain est une autre nuit (“tomorrow is another night”) was born. “This environment influenced our music,” says Pierre, “The sounds are more clear and open, the production has more depth, on a full frequency range.” Their living conditions on tour were another major influence, “Staying at different people’s places around the world for a whole year accentuates the feeling of being a stranger wherever you go, even in your own town, but also creates a feeling of being part of an international community, opposed to a scene that exists only in one city.” 

    Essaie pas’ music can not be tied to a specific genre It is a document of the encounter of two human beings mutually experimenting with music and sounds, and eventually falling in love while doing so. They are constantly pushing the boundaries of their comfort zone with new methods and technique, aiming to communicate that which is unspeakable.Their musical language is vibrant and varied - comparisons range from Film Soundtracks, Electronic Body Music, Disco, and Techno, with sensually-delivered lyrics exploring the themes of fantasies, obsessions, and the feeling of “The Void”. Marie explains, “The title comes from a joke we made when going to bed one morning, talking about our plans for the next evening.” Pierre adds, “Night is a place of freedom, a place where fantasies and obsessions are not tied by moral constraints. It’s also a time where the feeling of loneliness is stronger and when emotions and memories arise, whether you are facing it or running away from it. I think the tension and sense of urgency on the record comes from that dichotomy.”

    Facing The Music is an excellent demonstration of this dichotomy - its throbbing electronic percussion and sawmill synths racing towards a seemingly-inevitable climax, only to disintegrate in an instant. Similar in tone, Retox begins with an air-raid siren that explodes into electronic pulses and spiralling handclaps, with Pierre’s solemnly spoken vocals countering Marie’s sensual cadence. Lead single Le port du masque is a frenetic ode to obsession, about a man being obsessed with the ghost of an impossible relationship. Pierre explains - “I already had some of the lyrics and the idea of a woman’s mantra but months later, while I was jamming a motorik beat with a TR-505 through a delay pedal, I found the perfect foundation for it.” The band’s first composition, Carcajou appears here for the third time in an entirely different incarnation - Marie’s vocals alternately yearn and taunt, diving into and out of layers of drum machines and analog synthesizers. Closing track La Chute is the band at their most Angelo Badalamenti, with mournful organ and wheezing gasps giving way to what sounds like gentle applause, but in actuality is the last frames being fed through a film projector.

    1. Demain est une autre nuit
    2. Depassee
    3. Retox
    4. Carcajou 3
    5. Le port du masque est de rigeur
    6. Facing The Music
    7. Lights Out
    8. La chute

     

     

    View product
    Guerilla Toss - Eraser Stargazer
    Guerilla Toss - Eraser Stargazer

    Guerilla Toss - Eraser Stargazer

    $5.00

    Ecstatic, vital, and brilliantly unhinged, Guerilla Toss promotes positive energy and twisted spirituality through the less-traveled path of brutal, intelligent, live rock and roll dance music. Like a hurricane of healing bliss, a Guerilla Toss concert is more of a ritual than a performance. It is the unique pairing of musical voices and backgrounds that makes Guerilla Toss such a special party band. But they are more than that – GT gets real when you pay close attention. Their music is inspired by both tragedy and beauty, drug addiction/mental illness and the re-birth of the soul through spiritual practice and psychedelic drug healing - helping the listener overcome these mind-fuck hardships.

    GT had a productive 2015, releasing their acclaimed DFA debut Flood Dosed, which cemented support from folks ranging from punk icon Henry Rollins to Busy P of Justice’s Ed Banger Records. The band also relocated from Boston to NYC. “We felt like it was time to move closer to our favorite active bands and artists and they all just so happen to live in NYC!” This didn’t slow the pace of their live performances - between road trips to universities and DIY Festivals, they have a de-facto residency at Brooklyn’s premiere underground venue Palisades and scored opening slots for The Juan Maclean and Mission of Burma.

    Eraser Stargazer was written and recorded in 6 weeks of winter isolation in upstate New York. Fans of the group will hear all of the beloved hallmarks of the Guerilla Toss sound - solid bass grooves, squealing guitars, and kitchen sink percussion. Each instrument now occupies its own part of the audio spectrum, with vocalist/poet Kassie Carlson’s spirited incantations brought into focus. Album centerpiece Grass Shack is a perfect example of this leaner, yet tougher Toss. It traverses nearly seven minutes of game- show-winner keyboard stabs, mutant funk basslines, and time signature changes - all grounded by Peter Negroponte’s virtuosic drumming. Carlson describes the themes of the song as “A deep analytical depiction of a small unit of time, with heightened senses, Ripping yourself out of bed even though it might be harsh and overwhelming. Seeing patterns in the little things that make life beautiful.” Heavy subject matter permeates the rest of the record - but that doesn’t mean it’s a downer. Lead single Diamond Girls casts Carlson as a no-wave cheerleader over instrumentation reminiscent of DFA alumni Black Dice and The Rapture, culminating in the group’s catchiest chorus yet. Album closer Doll Face On The Calico Highway is the perfect summation - angular guitars, bells, and low-end vibrations interject and decompose as quickly as they appear, until a hissing cymbal is all that remains.

    Eraser Stargazer is released by DFA on March 4th, 2016. The initial pressing is limited to 1000 copies on green vinyl.

    Tracklisting: 

    1. Multibeast TV
    2. Diamond Girls
    3. Grass Shack
    4. Color Picture
    5. Eraser Stargazer Forever
    6. Perfume
    7. Big Brick
    8. Doll Face On The Calico Highway

     

    View product
    Shit Robot - What Follows
    Shit Robot - What Follows

    Shit Robot - What Follows

    $5.00

    Marcus Lambkin aka Shit Robot returns with his third full length album for DFA Records, entitled What Follows. The 11-track album was conceived and recorded at Marcus’ home studio in a small town outside Stuttgart; worked on in various New York studios and then mixed over the course of 11 intense & coffee-fuelled days in DFA label mate Juan Maclean’s New Hampshire studio. 

    The album follows Lambkin’s previous long-players, From The Cradle To The Rave (2010) and We Got A Love (2014), which drew plaudits from the likes of The Guardian and Pitchfork, and featured Reggie Watts and James Murphy among the array of contributors. 

    The Dublin-born producer has enlisted the help of a stellar cast of guests for What Follows, with previous collaborators Alexis Taylor (Hot Chip) and DFA stablemates Museum of Love & Nancy Whang returning, alongside new faces Jay Green and leftfield fellow Dubliner New Jackson. 

    What Follows marks a departure in Lambkin’s process - a simple, but fundamental one: getting away from the computer. He said: “This record is a lot more analog than 'We Got A Love', almost all of it comes from connecting machines together and playing around.” What was your biggest influence? “Drum machines.” What began in Stuttgart was followed up on in New York, before being finished in an 11-day blitz in New Hampshire with Juan Maclean. 

    Lambkin: “This is the first time that I actually sat down and said, ‘I'm going to make an album now and I'm going to finish it by a specific date and time.’ I wanted to make a record that was more cohesive, that sounded like it all came from the one session. I wanted it to reflect my DJing style a bit more, less pop, less disco, more machines. There's no live bass and barring a few hi-hats, there's no live drums. 

    “I began in Stuttgart - simply by creating about 12 drum loops. I then synched these up to some gear and created some bass lines so I had some solid grooves to start with. Then I went to NY and spent a couple of days at Holy Ghost's studio playing around with Nick and his modular synth coming up with different sequences and sounds. I then took all this over to Transmitter Park Studios in Greenpoint and spent a few days with the wizard that is Morgan Wiley of Midnight Magic and Tippy Toes. He's one of my favourite keyboard players on the planet. Sometimes I had a specific thing I wanted him to do, but mostly I just played him some things I like and got him to jam out on what I had come up with or play some nice chords or chord progressions. 

    “I took all this back home and started to fool around with it and knock it into shape before sending it out for vocals. With the song I did with Museum Of Love, 'What Follows', Dennis and Pat were actually in Europe and they came by and stayed with me for a few days, so we made that one in Stuttgart over a few nights once I got the kids to bed. It was particularly fun and easy. I think the wine helped. 

    “Then I brought it all to Juan's World in New Hampshire where we drank a LOT of coffee and did some additional production and mixed everything. Finishing the record with Juan was a game changer for me. We worked so hard. We finished eleven songs in eleven days, no joke.” 

    The results are convincing - What Follows is definitely an album dedicated to dance music, but one that retains hallmarks of his previous LPs: good songs. Alexis Taylor turns in two memorable performances on lead single ‘End Of The Trail’ and album opener ‘In Love’; Museum of Love - Pat Mahoney and Dennis McNany - lend the album title track an air of something mined from the two months in between the death of Joy Division and the birth of New Order; and Nancy Whang gave such a strong vocal for ‘Lose Control’ that Lambkin and Maclean threw out the existing track and recorded the backing along with the vocal in one take, which the two producers working the machines live. Lambkin: “I had so much fun with Lose Control - and it inspired me to make so much more music. I've written 12 new tracks since finishing the record.” 

    Newbies Jay Green and New Jackson hit their marks too - Green - best known for fronting American punk bands Orchid and Panthers - narrates Is There No End as though it were sibling to From The Cradle To The Rave’s single Simple Things. New Jackson makes two appearances, on both Phase Out and OB-8 (Winter Version), adding oddball vocals and spaced-out Krautrock guitar arrangements. 

    How did the guests come about? Lambkin: “I didn't have a big plan, I just knew that I wanted to work with friends. I knew I wanted to do something with Museum Of Love again. I also knew I would do something with Nancy, I couldn't make a Shit Robot record without Nancy. Then while I was working on End Of The Trail, I could hear Alexis's voice in my head, it just seemed a perfect fit. New Jackson is my younger brother’s old room mate and I've wanted to do something with Jay ever since I made the Green Machine 12”s a few years back.” 

    What Follows was preceded by two 12” singles - Where Its At (Feat. Reggie Watts), backed with a killer remix from Johnny Aux - and original version of album closer OB-8. 

    Track List:

    1. In Love (Feat. Alexis Taylor)
    2. What Follows (Feat. Museum of Love)
    3. Ten Miles High
    4. Lose Control (Feat. Nancy Whang)
    5. End Of The Trail (Feat. Alexis Taylor)
    6. Phase Out
    7. Wir Warten
    8. Is There No End (Feat. Jay Green)
    9. OB-8 (Winter Mix) [Feat. New Jackson]
    View product
    Factory Floor - 25 25
    Factory Floor - 25 25
    Factory Floor - 25 25
    Factory Floor - 25 25
    Factory Floor - 25 25

    Factory Floor - 25 25

    $5.00

    Blue Bag Version - originally made for Rough Trade shops worldwide. 2 copies remain in the DFA store....

    Tracklist:

    1. Meet Me At The End
    2. Relay
    3. Slow Listen
    4. 25 25
    5. Dial Me In
    6. Wave
    7. Ya
    8. Upper Left

    Factory Floor return in 2016 with 25 25, their second album and the follow up to their acclaimed 2013 self-titled debut. With their music stripped to a mesmerising dance of percussion, fragmented voice and melody, it captures the next vital stage in the evolution of one of the UK’s most restless and exploratory groups.

    The dazzlingly sharp, dubbed-out acid disco of ‘Meet Me At The End’ opens 25 25 in a surge of raw momentum. Both Factory Floor’s sparsest and most overtly club-centred track to date, it sets the tone for the rest of the album. Written and recorded by Gabriel Gurnsey and Nik Colk Void in late 2015 and early 2016, it’s the product of the last three years of intensive musical activity — non-stop live performances, artistic collaborations, writing new music and reconfiguring the limits of their sound.

    Inspired by playing a growing number of late night club shows, the pair’s music gradually evolved into the sound captured on their second album and in their current live incarnation: a stark, ultra-minimalist and eerily soulful dancefloor pulse, yet one that still bears Factory Floor’s unmistakable hallmarks of hypnotic repetition and jagged, punkish intensity.

    That their second album is as distinct from its predecessor as their debut was from their earliest singles is unsurprising — a desire to explore, to push their own boundaries, is hardwired into Factory Floor at DNA level. Emerging in 2009 the group gained a reputation for their stunning live shows, which pummeled audiences with waves of electro-shocked rhythm. From the death-rattle of early single ‘A Wooden Box’ through their debut’s convulsive singles ‘Two Different Ways’ and ‘Fall Back’ and into 25 25’s skeletal ‘Wave’ and ‘Dial Me In’, their music has continued to forge links between industrial, post-punk and the UK’s post-acid house dance lineages.

    The close friendships and collaborations they’ve established along the way attest to those connections, among them Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti of Throbbing Gristle/Chris & Cosey, Perc, Optimo, New Order and Simon Fisher Turner.

    Mixed with razor precision by David Wrench (FKA twigs, Caribou), the results are all the more forceful for that newfound space. ‘Relay’ is a spooked vocal house anthem, with Void’s voice processed into a thrillingly metallic chant. ‘Wave’ and ‘Slow Listen’ are deadly, perpetual motion machine dance tracks infused with the frontier spirit of Sheffield bleep and industrial techno. And the title track itself sums up the duo in 2016; its jarring repetitions and disorienting melodic motifs are somehow classic Factory Floor, yet shot into sparse, strangely moving new spaces. “You get into your own world and use your own vision,” says Void of the process of writing 25 25. “This really is probably the most ‘me’ record that I’ve ever done.

    View product
    Eric Copeland - Black Bubblegum
    Eric Copeland - Black Bubblegum

    Eric Copeland - Black Bubblegum

    $5.00

    Black Bubblegum is on black vinyl

    Black Bubblegum is the newest LP from Eric Copeland, and we are not kidding when we emphasize it sounds like nothing he has done in the past. The title of the record says it all: chewy, sticky pop that doesn’t taste quite like any chewy, sticky pop you’ve had before.

     
    Recorded at Copeland’s old practice space in South Williamsburg, Black Bubblegumcontains songs with more conventional sounds and songwriting than any of his previous releases. While there are similarities with Copeland’s earlier work in the drum patterns, major scales and vocals, Black Bubblegum moves away from his trademark psychedelic dub towards strange and fantastical pop. Wanting to take a more “hands-on” approach to these recordings, Copeland exchanged sample-driven tech and hardware for keyboards, guitars and effect pedals, creating a new sound that is oddly easy to digest despite its rejection of melody in favour of discord and dissonance. While there are similarities with Copeland’s earlier work in the drum patterns, major scales and vocals, Black Bubblegum moves away from his trademark psychedelic dub towards strange and fantastical pop; imagine Arthur Russell going into the studio with The Ramones.
     
    For a long time, Copeland considered this collection of songs to be recordings which would never be heard. This invariably influenced certain decisions made during the creation of Black Bubblegum, blessing Copeland with the unique freedom that comes from making music never intended to be heard, let alone released.
     
    When asked to please jot down what influenced this new album and sound, Eric replied”glam holes, glitter dreams, money troubles, apocalypse paranoia, one hit wonders, manifest destiny, my family's westward migration, body troubles (was passing kidney stones almost the entire time), LGBT disco parties, Jonathan Richman, Missing Foundation, Neil Diamond, New Orleans, poverty, getting pushed out of another Brooklyn neighbourhood... No Beach Boys, no Beatles, no Buddha...  More Bad News Bears.”
     
    Eric Copeland has been sound clashing at full volume for over twenty years, first carving out a named for himself as one third of the legendary NY-via-Providence band Black Dice. A wildly prolific solo artist, Copeland has played shit houses, party palaces and seemingly everything in between all over the world.
     
    A long time Brooklyn, resident, Eric recently relocated to where the L Train does not run - Palma de Mallorca, Spain. While maintaining a relatively humble and low key presence in a highly competitive musical world, he has releases a prolific amount of music every year through indie labels such as L.I.E.S., Escho (Iceage), PPM (No Age), Paw Tracks (Animal Collective) and DFA.

    Tracklist:

    1. Kids In A Coma
    2. Rip It
    3. Fuck It Up
    4. Honorable Mentions
    5. Blue Honey
    6. On
    7. Cannibal World
    8. Don't Beat Your Baby
    9. Radio Weapons
    10. Get My Own
    View product
    Crooked Man - Crooked Man
    Crooked Man - Crooked Man

    Crooked Man - Crooked Man

    $5.00

    See that man on a far off hill, working his dog while attempting to find shelter from the howling wind and driving rain? That’s the Crooked Man, the very antithesis of the modern dance music producer. He lives a simple life, dragging his world‐weary soul across the moors in an endless bid to escape the fallout from 30 years spent at the forefront of Sheffield’s electronic music scene. Once regarded as one of the Steel City’s greatest selectors, he now admits to being gripped by fear at the idea of DJing, and refuses to spend any time in nightclubs. 

    He may be ill at ease with the darkroom throb of 21st century clubs, but the house music the Crooked Man produces is as weighty, alien, raw and left of‐centre as anything you’d get from many a hyped young producer. He’s assisted in his studio endeavours by two other Sheffield survivors: former Clock DVA man Michael Ward, and David Lewin, once the other half of Bleep & Booster with former ABC and Vice Versa man Stephen Singleton.

    The Crooked Man’s music blends wonky electronic rhythms, heavy bass and razor sharp, politically aware lyrics, often delivered by the honeyed tonsils of Pete Simpson. For proof, check out the banker‐baiting “Scum (Always Rises The Top)”, or the bittersweet social commentary of “Fools & Fanatics”. The Crooked Man may be world weary, but he’s still brimming with rage. Few could have foreseen a link between this jaded recluse and New York’s militantly forward‐looking DFA Records. But then again, the Crooked Man does have history.

    Raised a farm boy, his life changed when he first heard the industrial funk and futurist electronic pop of local bands Cabaret Voltaire and the Human League. Bored of having no decent parties to go to, he became DJ Parrot and began promoting the soon to be legendary Jive Turkey events in 1985. Alongside his DJ partner Winston Hazel, he united Sheffield’s disparate dancers by joining the dots between Northern Soul, disco, hip‐hop, electro and the emerging underground dance sounds of Chicago, Detroit and New York.

    In 1987, an early foray into music production accidentally created a hit record, the major label‐signed “Hustle (To The Music)” by Funky Worm. The commercial desires of a large, conservative label proved hugely frustrating, and he soon yearned to break free and head back underground. Salvation came from within Sheffield, with the launch of Warp Records. He teamed up with Cabaret Voltaire’s Richard H Kirk under the Sweet Exorcist alias, delivering the peerless “Testone” in 1990, one of the landmark records of the bleep era. The pair went on to release the first album on Warp, C.C.E.P., in 1991.

    Many records under different aliases followed, for both independent and major labels, before Parrot once again found himself chart‐bound as part of eccentric Steel City trio All Seeing I. Their debut album, 1999’s Pickled Eggs & Sherbet, featured contributions from some of Sheffield’s finest, including Jarvis Cocker and The Human League’s Phil Oakey.

    Since then, Parrot has kept a low profile. When not working his sheepdogs, he’s quietly produced for Roisin Murphy, Add N To (X), Richard Hawley and Toddla T, amongst others. His decision, some years back, to revisit his love of raw, bass‐heavy house music merely marks another twist in the winding path of the Crooked Man.

    Tracklist:

    1. Coming Up For Air
    2. This Machine (Kills Me)
    3. The Girl With Better Clothes
    4. Scum (Always Rises To The Top)
    5. Preset
    6. Fools And Fanatics
    7. Try Me
    8. I'll Be Loving You
    9. Happiness
    View product
    Nils Bech - Echo
    Nils Bech - Echo

    Nils Bech - Echo

    $22.98

    “Echo”, the first album for DFA from acclaimed Norwegian avant garde pop vocalist Nils Bech. It is set for release on October 14th.

    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 the seachange 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 out before.

    The sound created here is strange and immediate. Stuttering sharp bass kicks combine with clanging 5-alarm snare drums made of glass, orchestra stabs and melancholy piano lines jump in and out of the arrangements. These new elements and ideas are married to the already singular voice of Nils Bech, with “Echo” becoming something new, exciting and 100% Norwegian - homegrown and ready for the world. Just listen to new track “Waiting” for evidence of his truly inimitable vision, as martial drums anchor Bech’s floating, weightless vocals, to create something swoonsome, beguiling and defiantly its own creature.

    The music comes to full fruition when performed live, as proven at two packed performances at the 2016 By Larm Festival where Nils was joined onstage by both Drippin’ & Øyvind Mathisen, who also produced, arranged and played on the album alongside Bech. Make sure not to miss the completely original and striking sound of Nils Bech.

    Tracklist:

    1. Waiting
    2. Too Little Too Late
    3. Glimpse Of Hope
    4. Please Stay
    5. Drip, Drip
    6. Let Go
    7. Echo
    8. Jealousy
    9. A Sudden Sickness

    black vinyl edition and CD feature a full color art inner sleeve. 

    View product
    V/A - DFA Records Compilation #1 2xLP
    V/A - DFA Records Compilation #1 2xLP
    V/A - DFA Records Compilation #1 2xLP
    V/A - DFA Records Compilation #1 2xLP

    V/A - DFA Records Compilation #1 2xLP

    $31.98

    The CD release of DFA Records Compilation #1 came out in days of yore, when the iTunes store did not exist, when iPods were more coveted than your phone. The only way to hear the first batch of singles DFA released was to seek out the vinyl and lots of people did.

    This magical mythical first group of releases from DFA included “House of Jealous Lovers” by The Rapture, “Losing My Edge” & “Give It Up” by LCD Soundsystem. It also included two very different approaches to dance music from The Juan Maclean – “By The Time I Get To Venus” and “You Can’t Have It Both Ways”, which subtly introduced the world to the vocal powers of Nancy Whang.

    Black Dice also released a 12” single, throwing their noise roots behind a 4/4 screech and created one of the most
    unique singles in the DFA catalog with “Cone Toaster”.

    The compilation was edited to fit onto one CD, more a sampler than a completist’s anthology. In hindsight, it should have been an anthology of the first 5 singles in full but the A sides had enough momentum happening to make the sampler a bonafide success for the label.

    The 8.0 review from Pitchfork in 2003 helped cement the DFA label as both the leaders of a new production approach, as well as a collection of artists who could co-exist make music together and please both the discerning DJ and the indie rock enthusiasts.

    In the review, the writer Nick Sylvester calls DFA “The Neptunes of the discopunk underground”, which maybe seems funny and far-fetched now, but back in 2003 was a compliment and comparison that DFA were very willing to accept. It is now 2016 and both parties continue to work and stay busy and relevant. Success being relative, this compilation represents the humble beginnings of the label and the birth / re-birth of DFA flagship artists The Rapture, The Juan Maclean, LCD Soundsystem & Black Dice.

    This is the first time this title has ever been pressed to vinyl.

    Tracklist

    Juan Maclean - By The Time I Get To Venus

    LCD Soundsystem - Give It Up

    The Rapture - House Of Jealous Lovers

    Black Dice - Cone Toaster

    Juan Maclean - You Can't Have It Both Ways (Live At Warsaw April 26, 2002)

    The Rapture - Silent Morning

    LCD Soundsystem - Losing My Edge

    Black Dice - Endless Happiness 


    View product
    Delia Gonzalez - Horse Follows Darkness
    Delia Gonzalez - Horse Follows Darkness
    Delia Gonzalez - Horse Follows Darkness
    Delia Gonzalez - Horse Follows Darkness

    Delia Gonzalez - Horse Follows Darkness

    $5.00

    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 deromanticised era are still relevant today. America hasn’t changed - the cast, times and settings have, but we still hold onto the same ideal.

    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 L.A. 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 & 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 & Berlin. Her disciplines include everything from composer to filmmaker, dancer / choreographer, sculptor, painter & 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.
    Tracklisting:

    1. In Through The Light
    2. Hidden Song
    3. Roulette
    4. Horse Follows Darkness
    5. Vesuvius

    View product
    Eric Copeland - Goofballs
    Eric Copeland - Goofballs

    Eric Copeland - Goofballs

    $5.00

    Eric Copeland (Black Dice) returns to DFA with a brand-new set of hyper & hectic leftfield club music. Goofballs places its emphasis on playful melodies, ear worm hooks & vocals mixed with trademark machine funk rhythms that hit hard and land off-balance. Any other way would be too obvious for an artist like Eric. Perhaps he even invented a new dance genre: ‘Goofstep’. We’ll see if that one sticks…

    Eric explained the creation of this new LP to us via email from his home on an island in lovely Balearic Palma Spain:

    “i made it here in Palma at my studio, this is the first full record i’ve made entirely here since moving. some of this material was road tested September 2016 on tour supporting Animal Collective. This album was the result of real isolation here, countless hours, focused only on this. The whole recording & writing was a fast process. I focused most on the bass groove. I had a very minimal gear setup: 90’s drum machine, cheap bass machine and a sampler. But most important was a homemade ‘drum brain’ that Barry’s London custom made for me. Barry was in the Van Pelt Soldiers of Fortune & Oneida. That piece of gear was a big part of this record and informed the direction it took the most.”

    Eric Copeland is a founding member of Black Dice as well as a prolific solo artist. Besides DFA, he has released albums on L.I.E.S., Post Present Medium & Paw Tracks.

    Goofballs was mixed by Rusty Santos (who has mixed everyone from DJ Rashad to Panda Bear to Owen Pallett) and mastered by Joe Lambert. It is Eric’s third solo album for DFA Records.

    Tracklist: 
    1) Boogieman
    2) Neckbone
    3) Disco Ball
    4) Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo
    5) Mixer Shredder
    6) Close Encounters
    7) Smearjob
    8) Do Whatcha Wah Wah

    COMPACT DISC AVAILABLE ON DFA BANDCAMP

    View product
    LCD Soundsystem - American Dream
    LCD Soundsystem - American Dream
    LCD Soundsystem - American Dream
    LCD Soundsystem - American Dream
    LCD Soundsystem - American Dream
    LCD Soundsystem - American Dream

    LCD Soundsystem - American Dream

    $5.00

    The latest LCD album, available in double LP, compact disc, or limited edition cassette.

    **

    2xLP

    • 140 gram double LP
    • Full color gatefold jacket / inner sleeves

    Cassette

    • full color 5 panel inner card
    • clear cassette shell
    • custom silk screened cassette shells & cases

    CD

    • Fold-over heavy card stock envelope.
    • 16 page booklet with lyrics and photos
    View product
    Essaie pas - New Path
    Essaie pas - New Path
    Essaie pas - New Path
    Essaie pas - New Path

    Essaie pas - New Path

    $5.00

    Tracklist:

    1) Les Aphides
    2) Futur Parlé
    3) Complet Brouillé
    4) Les agents des stups
    5) Substance M
    6) New Path


    Essaie Pas
    always seek out fresh challenges. Emerging from Montreal’s sprawling electronic scene, the duo - Marie Davidson and Pierre Guerineau – feel completely free to express themselves, to sketch out hitherto unmapped musical regions.

    Essaie Pas has always been about exploring new territories” explains Pierre. “From the very first tapes, to the last one. We don’t want to do the same thing over and over again, – we just need to keep it exciting and to challenge ourselves. Take those experiences, open new boxes and see what happens.”

    Forthcoming album ‘New Path’ takes this one step further. The duo’s fifth album to date – and second on powerhouse label DFA Records –is loosely based on Philip K. Dick’s A Scanner Darkly, a classic of dystopian science fiction.

    “I read the book a long time ago, maybe 15 years ago, and it had a strong impression on me,” explains Pierre. “In our previous work we always looked to music as inspiration in our lives, but this time we felt the desire to try something different, that’s not based on ourselves but on someone else’s universe. It was going to be more conceptual, more political.”

    ‘New Path’ touches on personal ground, on addiction, loss, and the lingering strength of identity within late capitalism’s mass media paranoia. It pins down the central character’s destructive addiction, using this as a metaphor to explore the dichotomous rupture between our inner lives and our social environment, one that is often fed and soothed by drug abuse, social media, or any kind of dependence.

    “I think it touches us on many levels,” Pierre continues. “We can talk about drug addiction issues, we can talk about the mass surveillance world we live in, but there’s also the experience of loss, of grief. I was surprised by how the book felt so modern and accurate to the time we live in right now. Dick’s visions of surveillance are the reality of social control today.”

    It’s a record that continually ties itself in knots, a puzzle that is outwardly beguiling while the solutions remain inherently allusive. As Pierre points out, it’s even present in the title. “I like the fact that it sounds optimistic, but in the book it’s actually an illusion,” he explains. “This new path is actually going nowhere.”

    But it’s a challenge met with humour, picking up on the wry elements of Philip K. Dick’s own writing – witness the subtle wit of songs such as ‘Complet Brouillé’, ‘Les Agents Des Stups’ or as in ‘Futur Parlé’s tripped-out lyrics, offsetting intense themes with something a little more playful. 

    The conceptual nature of ‘New Path’ belies the subtle personal shifts within the band. A husband and wife duo, Essaie Pas thrive on freedom, on parting to focus on outside projects in Montreal and Berlin before returning renewed, flushed with fresh inspiration.

    “Both personally and for Essaie Pas it’s good that both of us have separate projects,” he explains. “Marie has been constantly touring solo for the last year. On my side I’ve been producing other people’s music (Bernardino Femminielli, Pelada or Sleazy to name a few). Collaborating in the studio with talented people with unique aesthetics and different creative processes is always refreshing as an artist.”

    The complexity of the project mirrors the complexities within Essaie Pas’ career to date – forever unpredictable, their wiry, individual sound offers a tangled vision of tomorrow’s aesthetics. “I think this was the main challenge,” muses Pierre. “To adapt what we’ve been doing live thru the last 2 years, which before was always changing, and corner it, make it cohesive”.

    Although the duo is continually reinventing themselves, exploring new concepts or addressing political issues, emotions stays the essential aspect of their work. This is cold music for cold times, yet beneath this lies a continual search for the humane.

    As they conclude “Ultimately we hope we can reach out to people, in a compassionate way, this is what we aim for with this album."

     

    View product
    Eric Copeland - Trogg Modal Vol. 1
    Eric Copeland - Trogg Modal Vol. 1
    Eric Copeland - Trogg Modal Vol. 1
    Eric Copeland - Trogg Modal Vol. 1
    Eric Copeland - Trogg Modal Vol. 1

    Eric Copeland - Trogg Modal Vol. 1

    $5.00


    Tracklist:

    1) Mateo
     
    2) 321 Contact
    3) Electric Mud
    4) Heads
    5) Build-A-Brain
    6) Fresco
    7) Hugo


    In the first part of a two-volume release, Eric Copeland (Black Dice) delivers Trogg Modal Vol. 1. It has been one year since releasing Goofballs and Eric has doubled down on his unique approach to crafting dance music, pushing a sort of 'Freakbeat 4/4' agenda even further than before. Where Goofballs was the first album recorded in its entirety in Eric’s current home of Palma de Mallorca, Spain, and the result of countless hours spent working in the studio, Trogg Modal Vol. 1 is a bit less serious and more carefree, with tracks that are propelled forward by a singular, frenzied energy. 


    Chunky percussive layers, hard steady kicks, and tweaked loopy vocals create a playful vibe that is best described as a tropical-industrial hybrid. The final product comes together via seven succinct, self-described “rippers,” music created both deliberately and accidentally, and always with a sense of humor that bubbles over and out through the speakers. With Trogg Modal Vol. 2 out in early 2019, this two-part release pulls into focus a vivid and unfamiliar new direction for Eric Copeland.

     

     

    View product
    Crooked Man - Crooked House
    Crooked Man - Crooked House
    Crooked Man - Crooked House
    Crooked Man - Crooked House

    Crooked Man - Crooked House

    $31.98

    The elusive Crooked Man returns to DFA with Crooked House, a maximalist take on electronic and house music that picks up where 2016’s self-titled LP left off. Teaming up again with Michael Somerset Ward (Clock DVA) and David Lewin (Bleep & Booster) in the studio, Richard Barratt crafts a comprehensive journey of hi-fi house belters with more sinister electro-pop mixed in for good measure. The LP is influenced by two historic epicenters of electronic music: Sheffield, UK, where Richard has had an illustrious career in a mix of legendary groups like Funky Worm, Sweet Exorcist, and The All Seeing I; and the NYC Loft-era disco sound, where extended grooves were layered with peak-time choruses. 

    Richard’s diverse collaborations and intensely prolific discography have now led him to records as lush and sophisticated as Crooked House. Considering the rarity of a live Crooked Man performance or DJ set, it’s a testament to his hyper-creativity that these tracks are able to reach new heights in a club setting. With support from disco historian Bill Brewster and NTS resident Ross Allen (not to mention “Echo Loves Narcissus” being named #1 single of the year by Piccadilly Records in 2017, before it was even properly released), it’s clear that Crooked House brings a timeless vitality to the current landscape of dance music, and continues an exciting new chapter in Crooked Man’s career.

    TRACKLIST:
    1) Every Killer Needs A Friend
    2) Here On Earth
    3) Make Up
    4) Turnaround
    5) Walls
    6) Take It All Away
    7) Long Time Dead
    8) Echo Loves Narcissus 
    9) Robots

     

     

    PRE-ORDER - Heavyweight Double Vinyl LP and CD releases October 19, 2018
    View product
    Eric Copeland - Trogg Modal Vol. 2
    Eric Copeland - Trogg Modal Vol. 2

    Eric Copeland - Trogg Modal Vol. 2

    $5.00

    **Pre-Order, all orders ship the week of March 18th

    Tracklist: 
    1) Beat It
    2) High score Zed
    3) United Banana
    4) Payoff
    5) BS Dropout 
    6) Light Fantastic
    7) Blazin
    8) Falo

    On March 29, Eric Copeland delivers Trogg Modal Vol. 2, the counterpart to last October’s Vol. 1. The former Black Dice member’s 'Freakbeat 4/4' agenda gets further refined here – Vol. 2 is more laid-back than the first, but still highly danceable. 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. Eric’s textured, off-the-cuff approach to dance music adds a refreshing element of spontaneity and ‘jamming’ to a climate of uncanny smoothness and polish.    

    Where Vol. 1 was composed of “rippers,” Vol. 2 travels at its own pace, continuing to showcase Eric’s ability to recontextualize 4/4 tracks as psychedelic contortions, from the squelchy vibrations of “BS Dropout” to the blithe, video arcade soundtrack “High Score Zed.” Taken together, the two volumes of Trogg Modal showcase the versatility of one of the most continuously exciting experimental artists of the past twenty years – arriving in 2019 with his mischievous sense of adventure firmly intact.

    View product
    Eric Copeland - Hermaphrodite 12"
    Eric Copeland - Hermaphrodite 12"
    Eric Copeland - Hermaphrodite 12"
    Eric Copeland - Hermaphrodite 12"
    Eric Copeland - Hermaphrodite 12"

    Eric Copeland - Hermaphrodite 12"

    $14.98

    "Hermaphrodite" is a solo record comprised of samples, field recordings, vocal loops and drums that transform your brain from mellow to engaged to confused to greatly pleased. Tribal rhythms and noises that get you feeling slightly stoned, in a good way. CD version released on Paw Tracks. Eric Copeland is a super nice guy who is always pushing sounds in BD and on his own and "Hermaphrodite" is a testament to his ever pressing need to push audio boundaries. text taken from Post Present Medium

    TRACKLISTING
    1. Hermaphrodite
    2. La Booly Boo
    3. Oreo
    4. Green Burrito
    5. Wash Up
    6. Spacehead
    7. Tree Aliens
    8. Scum Pipe
    9. Dinca
    10. Mouthhole
    11. Fkd
    12. Scraps

    View product
    The Juan Maclean - The Brighter The Light
    The Juan Maclean - The Brighter The Light
    The Juan Maclean - The Brighter The Light
    The Juan Maclean - The Brighter The Light
    The Juan Maclean - The Brighter The Light
    The Juan Maclean - The Brighter The Light

    The Juan Maclean - The Brighter The Light

    $5.00

    album artwork by Bráulio Amado. 

    1. The Brighter The Light
    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

    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.

    View product
    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.
     

    View product
    Hercules & Love Affair - Hercules & Love Affair CD
    Hercules & Love Affair - Hercules & Love Affair CD

    Hercules & Love Affair - Hercules & Love Affair CD

    $5.00

    CD version of the debut album from Hercules & Love Affair

    Tracklist: 
    1) Time Will
    2) Hercules Theme
    3) You Belong
    4) Athene
    5) Blind
    6) Iris
    7) Easy
    8) This Is My Love
    9) Raise Me Up
    10) True/False, Fake/Real
    View product
    Black Meteoric Star - Black Meteoric Star
    Black Meteoric Star - Black Meteoric Star

    Black Meteoric Star - Black Meteoric Star

    $5.00

    Black Meteoric Star was written, recorded and produced by Gavin Russom between September of 2006 and December of 2008.

    This CD contains the entire 12" series.


    Excluding "Dawn" the tracks have been edited for album length.


    The original digital transfers of tracks 1-4 were done in Berlin.


    This recording was achieved using specialized electronic circuits designed and built by Gavin Russom.

    Tracklist:
    1) Death Tunnel
    2) World Eater
    3) Domination
    4) Anthem
    5) Dream Catcher
    6) Dawn

    View product
    Cold Beat - Mother
    Cold Beat - Mother
    Cold Beat - Mother
    Cold Beat - Mother
    Cold Beat - Mother
    Cold Beat - Mother
    Cold Beat - Mother
    Cold Beat - Mother
    Cold Beat - Mother

    Cold Beat - Mother

    $5.00

     

    Tracklist:
    1) Smoke
    2) Prism
    3) Paper
    4) Pearls
    5) Gloves
    6) Through
    7) Double Sided Mirror
    8) Mother
    9) Crimes
    10) Flat Earth


    San Francisco band Cold Beat make their DFA debut with Mother, a collection of ten pop transmissions from Earth, 2020.


    Wound tight with an energy that ricochets from one song into the next, Mother was made while frontperson Hannah Lew (formerly of indie trio Grass Widow) was pregnant and considering the chaotic conditions of the world she was bringing a new human into. If we consider Mother an artistic style guide through space and time, the framework Cold Beat provide is overcast by design but focused in execution; locked-in drums and synths with choir-like melodies high above it all.

    “I found myself trying to describe our earth to a new human who had never been here,” says Lew. “It was a bleak year to be pregnant, but I was simultaneously filled with so much love and hope at the same time. I remember feeling a sense of wanting to show my whole range of self to this new person I was about to meet. In past albums, I sometimes held my artistic self in an ethereal place, but I found myself wanting to be very much on this earth and grounded during the creation of this record.”

    The A-side of Mother presents the facts as we perceive them, while the B-side accelerates into the uncertain. Each of the first five track titles is one evocative word: the synths on “Prism” slide against the motorik guitar riffs and the plaintive saxophone on “Paper” casts the Leonard Cohen-esque melody in a melancholy shadow; “Gloves” is a real mood, all drive. Everything begins to unfurl from there. “Will it be over if there’s no sound?” Lew wonders on album standout “Double Sided Mirror,” and then ruminates, “it won’t be long until you find me in the beyond” on the more upbeat “Crimes.” The early architects of these sonic settings—Eurythmics, The Human League, Depeche Mode—act as touchstones and inspiration.

    One of the most prescient things Mother teaches is that existence will not be, and has not ever been, a solitary experience. “It's really the first album where the project felt more like a band,” Lew says. “In a lot of ways, it feels like our first album.” And though four LPs (released on Dark Entries and Lew’s own label Crime On The Moon) precede this one, Mother is Cold Beat at their most concentrated and crystalline. It’s an honest, forgiving, and ultimately optimistic team effort from a band busy being born, re-born and giving life

    View product