The world of psychedelic disco house has been heating up as of late. Kings of new-era mid tempo disco DFA and their partner record company Death From Abroad have been busy as of late, releasing singles from new and old acts alike. Starting with the new guys on the block, Runaway, Panther, and Yacht have all releases 45’s within the past few months and I’m just now discovering them (thanks iTunes Store (not)).
Although Yacht has releases various material on other labels, their first release on DFA is much different than material from their past. Most fans have heard “See a Penny” a fun electro-pop tune, but their new single “Summer Song” is a more low-fi, hand-clapping, droning vocals mix. Supposedly a track dedicated to James Murphy and the LCD Soundsystem crew from when the two acts toured together, “Summer Song” may come as a surprise to longtime Yacht fans, but the release has definite potential for fans of other acts from this great label.
Runaway, the work of Jacques Renault and Marcos Cabral, have released their first single on DFA as well. “Brooklyn Club Jam,” the electrifying seven and a half minute romp, starts as a minimal disco dub and then transforming into an up beat club banger much the likes of anything heard in Brooklyn these days (how convenient). The duo has been getting play around the globe with this hit, most notably Lindstrom and Prins Thomas’ essential bbc 1 mix, while other labels have been taking note as well. Runaway has released singles on Cosmo Vitelli’s I’m a Cliche label and European heavy weights Rekids company as well.
As for the recent releases from prior acts, Mock & Toof, The Juan Maclean, and Holy Ghost have all issues great tracks.
It’s hard to give enough praise to the New Mock & Toof effort “Underwater.” What starts as a pretty basic disco track from any other DFA act, Underwater soon takes off thanks to vocals that sooth more than blow away. The music slowly bends and builds in the six minutes, creating landscapes that relax and at the same time make you want to get up and grab the girl next to you and boogie the night away. Turning the corner at the three minute mark, Underwater takes on an entirely new element- the piano. After a short bit of silence and ambiance, the piano comes back and grabs the listener to create a beautiful and amazingly overwhelming sound that never looks back. Mock & Toof have done it again with this track, and one can only hope a full length will be released eventually instead of the usual two or three track 45s.
The Juan Maclean, busy as usual between full length albums various 45s and Djing constantly, released “The Simple Life” with the help of various friends. Nacy Whang, long time DFA partner and part of LCD Soundystem, lends vocals to the track that spins at a consistent tempo and rhythm. A fan of any other Juan project will find this track to be expected, and a nice layover until the release of his next full length.
Mentioned earlier as well, Holy Ghost has been busy, or rather their fans have been busy. Recently releasing a 45 with two great remixes on it, both remixes of last year’s surprise hit “Hold On.” Mock & Toof lend their hand to both mixes, a remix and a mod mix, both tracks are dance ready and worthy of play for any fan of the original track. On another note for Holy Ghost, Cut Copy‘s latest single is slated to have a remix of “Hearts on Fire”, the horn-friendly track off of their 2008 release In Ghost Colors.
Well for now that’s all I have in DFA related news, more should be expected when it comes about. Hopefully next time I’ll have some new Shit Robot material to talk about but that only seems to be on a year-to-year basis, so I’m not getting my hopes up just yet.
mp3 of these are hard to come by so just hit up the links ive got on their names to find the tracks mentioned. You can find most of the tracks on iTunes as well if you use that or you can buy the 45s from the DFA webstore, for all you vinyls lovers out there.
MIND INVERSION 