Memorial Day 2024

From the depths of the DFA vault (really just an assortment of poorly organized hard drives of varying vintages), we found this gem, a version of “pow pow” made all squirrely by master squirrels the Idjut Boys.

Why we kept this a secret for 14 years will forever remain a mystery. It’s a distant cousin of the original - vocals gone, drums looped out, squelch and delay coming down like rain. A real chugger.

What better to pair it with, then, than Rub-N-Tug’s remix of “too much love,” long out of print from its original pressing in 2005 and still a complete monster meant for dark rooms and cranked up smoke machines. It lives on wax once again, now with a likeminded buddy.

Both tracks were recut at 45RPM by Bob Weston and pressed with care by the good humans at Third Man Pressing in Detroit, MI. Hand-stamped here at DFA and limited to 1000 pieces.

The debut LP from LCD Soundsystem.

1xLP in a reverse board sleeve.

Track Listing:

1. Daft Punk Is Playing At My House
2. Too Much Love
3. Tribulations
4. Movement
5. Never As Tired As When I'm Waking Up
6. On Repeat
7. Thrills
8. Disco Infiltrator
9. Great Release

This is a fake-live album, featuring the live lineup, played live, just not in front of people or anything. Features lots of yr LCD faves like All My Friends, Us V. Them, I Can Change, and Daft Punk Is Playing At My House. 

Tracklist

The DFA debut from longtime family member Jayson Green also marks the return of the classic DFA twelve-inch. Maybe it actually stands for Dying Formats Always?

Jay’s sung in a lot of bands. Like, a lot. Panthers, Violent Bullshit, Cheeseburger, and the legendary hardcore band Orchid. There are probably more. He’s always been smart and hilarious, never quite cynical though always quick to point out the absurd.

Now in a bandleader role, he’s delivered us a classic a-side in “Local Jerk,” which sounds like a party because it was actually recorded during one: tight disco drums, big claps, a neck-rolling baseline, horns, and group vocals. You can literally hear the bottles clinking.

The head trip is the b-side, “I Need Love,” which is a most terrifying, ridiculous piece of nightlife satire.

CREDITS

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



Such is the effect of “Hang The Rich,” a nugget of slinky, ecstatic punk-funk that was until recently completely lost to the sands of time. Recorded in 1986 (or thereabouts) in New Orleans, it’s the kind of song that compels you to move any which way you can, drunk on indignation.

The track came to DFA via LCD Soundsystem's Korey Richey, who knows Dickie from back home in Louisiana.

After a lengthy search, we located the original tapes in a storage locker somewhere in the Southeast and finally were able to get a clean, quality transfer done here at DFA HQ.

From there, we only had one person in mind for a more DJ-friendly edit: Glasgow’s JD Twitch, one half of Optimo and a selector of similarly puckish spirit. Twitch’s ability to place older, skronkier sounds in a modern dance floor context are unmatched, and his edit hard and jagged before opening up into those beautiful rapturous moments that make the original so goddamn special.

Written and produced by Dickie Landry
Engineered by Shelton Skerrett
Additional engineering by Korey Richey
Soprano saxophones and Roland Jupiter 4 by Dickie Landry
Vocals by Evelyn Erhard
Percussion by Billy Ware
Drums by Ricky Sebastian
Mastered and cut at 45RPM by Bob Weston
Pressed at MPO

Fernando Pulichino's slinky, syrupy dance floor records have been cycling through DFA DJ bags for years, so it was only a matter of time until he made an official appearance on company letterhead. The OG version of "I Got, She's Got" which appears here on B2 is a romping, howl-at-the-moon burner, but it's the remix that really goes and notched the A1 placement at 45RPM. Between the two, is another bomb, "She's Playing With Fire." All three tracks are weapons, trust us.

Mastered and cut by Bob Weston and pressed at Furnace Record Pressing in Alexandria, VA.

"A merciless triumph" - The Wire

You must surrender. Because if you’ve followed Naum Gabo over the past 15 years - across various 12-inches, styles, and notable labels - and you’re listening to “F. Lux,” their first proper album, then you’re probably wondering how you wound up here, all the way down, barely able to see through the brain-clogging atmosphere and towering low-end.

“F. Lux” is deep, enthralling listen, alternating between moments of pounding, world-ending techno (“Schinokapsala” and “This 1¨º∆”) and sharply imagined, surrealist scenes painted with metallic machines ("Aora" and "Haerstag"). There is light to be found in the darkness, but the only way out is through.

Naum Gabo are Glasgow’s Jonnie Wilkes (also known as one-half of DJ duo Optimo) and James Savage (prolific mastering engineer). F. Lux was written and produced entirely by them at their Glasgow Hottrax Studios and mastered by James Savage. The album's front cover artwork is a painting by cherished Scottish painter, Andrew Cranston. The vinyl was pressed at MPO in France using lacquers cut by Bob Weston in Chicago.

1. Aora
2. Tols
3. Schinokapsala
4. Hebust Cometh
5. Haerstag
6. This 1¨º∆
7. Nothing In My Hand
8. Parasymptofelia

Please welcome back to the program Museum Of Love, the erstwhile duo of Pat Mahoney and Dennis McNany who have returned to the DFA fold with a perfect 7”, two songs like two sides of a coin.

"After Us" is a simple, buoyant pop song heavily tempered by warnings of a bleak future. The old "sugar with the medicine" approach. 

"Look Of Disgust" is its perfect foil. A notty, almost industrial sounding wind up that ends just like a slap in the face.

Both songs were mixed by Nick Millhiser and mastered by Bob Weston. Purple vinyl pressed at Third Man Pressing in Detroit, MI.

Needle drop and a floaty, child-like piano sucks you into the post-punk papier-mâché world of JJULIUS, where everyone speaks Swedish, listens to Young Marble Giants and eats nothing but Twizzlers.

Vol. 2 is, perhaps obviously, a continuation of the world-building JJULIUS did on Vol. 1, which is a little more raw, a little wilder in spirit and sold out at both source and every record store that managed to get its hand on a copy. It will also re-arrive this summer on DFA this summer alongside its successor. (Order here.)

JJULIUS is Gotebörg’s Julius Pierstorff, who, with his partner Elin Engström aka Loopsel, also records as Monokultur and runs the tiny label Mamma’s Mysterious Jukebox.

The music they make both together and separately is entirely their own, with its own rules of what instruments come and go; when a song begins and ends or swells like a marshmallow. And yet! It’s also referencing all the records we love and know - Young Marble Giants, Postcard Records, early Cabaret Voltaire, and even contemporary local peers like Mathaverskan.

Buy the ticket, take the trip.