new releases (new front page)

It wasn’t really hiding, just sitting quietly online. But Tom Sharkett’s edit of “Home” was too good to ignore. Originally a bootleg we first heard played on Flo Dill’s Breakfast Show on NTS, it wormed its way into our hearts and never left. So we made it official. Sometimes the internet actually makes your life better.

Eric Broucek was the ur-engineer of the most fertile era of DFA Studios, from about 2003 to 2008 (no one knows anything precisely about that time, as it’s all lost in the fog of chaos). His hand was on all of the remixes, LPs, dance 12s. He was there in that over-designed gear dungeon almost every day, recording, mixing, struggling to not roll his eyes at Tim and me. And somewhere in that fog, he quietly dropped limited runs of three 12-inch delayed reaction bombs on his own label Stickydisc Recordings—two under the name Babytalk, and one as Watussi with another DFA regular, Morgan Wiley.

Back in the day, Eric did not want his music released on DFA. He wanted to forge his own identity, which he did, sending out music that wandered from the DFA path with its uniquely wonky, upended and understated power. His music is so unlike everything else of that era, so profoundly singular, that it still sounds completely out of time.

A few years back, I started DJing the tracks again, and saw how the world was still surprised by what Eric had made, and the idea of this compilation was born.

So, in the end, Eric, we totally got to release your records anyway. We heart you, man.

-James Murphy

RIP Magic have wasted no time. In their first year, they've been dubbed "London's buzziest band" by The Guardian, played big shows with LCD Soundsystem and Fcukers and tiny ones in London bars and restaurant basements, and now they finally release a physical single, produced by James Murphy, his first production for another band in over a decade.

"5words" builds slowly into a euphoric urban epic, sounding equally indebted to the Velvet Underground, Orbital, Echoes-era Rapture, and the Dean Blunt cinematic universe, and, honestly, Nirvana. It sounds like decades collapsing into the present, enabled by frictionless discovery and resolved through the simplest method: four people in a room searching for something new, something great, a good feeling.

The b-side features a remix by none other than Maurice Fulton, his first DFA credit since those Syclops records became instant classics in 2008. Maurice is one of the greatest remixers and producers of his era and architect of a sound so singular and identifiable that even all his pseudonyms can't fool the trainspotters. This one is just the type: thrillingly off-center and unavoidably banging.

Produced and mixed by James Murphy for the DFA
Recorded at Relax And Enjoy (London) and DFA (NYC)
Engineered by Al Doyle and James Crump in London and Pablo Morales in NYC
Mastered by Bob Weston at Weston Masters
Pressed at Paramount Record Pressing in Denver, CO

“No Cigar” is a track that didn’t make it onto 2023’s 5 Songs, which was, technically, five songs, so there wasn’t room. It’s a pokey, plonky bit of dance music from Shit Robot (aka Marcus Lambkin), made with Joe Goddard and Al Doyle at their RAE Studios in London.

It sounded… dubby. Like “what if Adrian Sherwood got his hands on this?” dubby. So we asked. And he said yes!

The b-side is classic Sherwood at the controls—a version that’s not fully exploded, but submerged, warped, a little demented. We’re honored and still hearing crazy new sounds every time we play it.

*

Written and produced by Marcus lambkin, Al Doyle, and Joe Goddard
An RAE production recorded at Relax And Enjoy (London)
Engineered by James Crump
Mixed by Korey Richey at DFA (NYC)
Mastered by Bob Weston at Chicago Mastering Service

Angelic Ascent is a new collection of recordings from Infinity Machine, the ever-wandering psychedelic duo from Juan MacLean and Gee Dee. It’s not quite a proper album (their “debut” will come next year) and more of a side quest in major key new age - it really does sound like its title. We mean this completely sincerely: grab an eye mask and prepare to ascend.