New from the DFA...

I'm going to completely screw up this description and make both 'dance' music and Murphy sound bad, but I do like both. Anyway... James Murphy doesn't actually like dance music. He likes music you can dance to, but when it comes down to it at the end of the day, it all sounds like repetitive lazy shit where it's just a little effect here or there and some sort of cheesy hook, or even worse, cheesy ambience. If you're a guitar tech, fiddling with equipment guy, you're going to be all about the "disco edits" where you take that effect, chop it down, make the music ramp up to that point, and then reverse the effect. You can't just sit there and say "yeah, this beat is great" and dance around. Remember the late 1990s when there was some supposed "rock/electronica" crossover period and all the rock kids were going to love Daft Punk and shit, because it wasn't that "boom boom boom" boring "techno" stuff? Lots twitchier.

It's interesting that the idea of re-appropriation is mention, and it's such a stumbling point for JM. He's doing (in my opinion) a pretty good job of combining a lot of influences, not so subtly. But he doesn't even vaguely connect that to the obvious beat-jacking that went on when Goldsworthy was at Mo'Wax. It's always been amazing to me that the influences are so similar (and probably why Goldsworthy and Murphy get along so well) but there's this weird dismissal. I have no idea how much influence Goldsworthy had outside of the records he either worked on or helped get released (Liquid Liquid!) but the influences are similar to DFA's.

hadn't heard anything about this so was quite surprised to see it on the racks and even more surprised to see that it was going for the princely figure of £3 (for 50 minutes of music).

granted the tracklisting does, at first glance, look a little unadventurous (lots of mixes from a specific artist grouped together) but it works unbelievably well . hearing the great (new?) cute/psychedelic delia and gavin track "5" mixed into tiga's mix of "tribulations" has got to be a musical moment of the year. after 2 plays i prefer this to any other dfa mix so far. put it this way it just made cleaning my oven and fridge out a hell of a lot more fun.

This should be printed on a label and stuck on the packaging.

you've got it wrong - that BX remix is the jam!
-- rajeev (rajeev...), May 6th, 2005.

Right now listening to The DFA Remixes Chapter One and you're right. I got it wrong. Too bad the NIN remix coudn't make this compilation though.

here are some more electronic battle weapons due later this year:

The DFA - Remixes Chapter Two

01. Far From Home - Tiga
02. Shake Your Coconuts - Junior Senior
03. She Wants To Move - N.E.R.D.
04. Colours - Hot Chip
05. Hand That Feeds - Nine Inch Nails
06. Slide In - Goldfrapp
07. Destination Overdrive - Chromeo
08. In A State - UNKLE

no seriously tho I think I would like the mixes better with vocals or twisted remnants of the originals.

The whole vocal collaborations thing, or Ashcroft in particular? Spill it, Galkin!

I guess the Tiga and the Unkle one are both vocal-less. I found the Tiga one pretty disappointing. I dunno, as I say, there's nothing about the remixes that I think sucks particularly just it feels a bit like the sort of work that would be much better on a full length album and not in a remix coming out every 2 months.

The Unkle one is odd, it should be amazing but it just feels kind of flat to me, maybe not raw enough I dunno, just something about it reminds me of Josh Wink or someone where massive suspenseful buildup does not necessarily equal lots of fun.

I guess I'm cursed in that I listen to these releases with a view to playing them at our night and alot of the DFA ones, even the ones I like like the Hot Chip, are kind of unplayable, they do sound different and fresh but they are not really club music to my ears, and as a result I kind of wonder at their purpose.

I know they don't need a purpose but then the DFA are held in very high esteem by alot of people so I guess it's ok to expect a high standard. (maybe I just feel nothing since the first few LCD releases has ever come close to that initial excitement, and in many ways could some of these "DFA" remixes be any further from "Yeah" or "Losing My Edge"? I often wonder what level of involvement Murphy has in the DFA remixes, maybe Galkin can shed some light)

not to get too divergent.

I haven't cared much for most of the DFA mixes of more mainstream artists like NIN or N.E.R.D., mostly because they seem unwilling to engage the songs on any more interesting terms than to make a DFA version of the track. Which is exactly what they're being asked to do, of course, so it's not as if that's any big offense or surprise. It's just that when they remix pop songs, it makes me wonder to what extent there is a DFA REMIX MACHINE, because they come out, usually, sounding more or like their other remixes-- rmxs made from songs that were rarely too far from speaking the same languages as the DFA's original productions, so the lack of huge noteworthy differences seems somehow much more acceptable. It just seems like a wasted opportunity or a cashed check (and maybe that's all it is, and that's probably totally fine).