New from the DFA...

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).

I think you are maybe equating "masculine" with "rock" a little too much. I guarantee you a lot of my more rock-oriented friends would not view such tight disco drumming as particularly masculine (or necessarily gay, but still). The issue seems more "live" v. "electronic." Even though I know DFA drums are heavily (and masterfully) edited, there's still that little bit of swing and difference in mixing that makes them sound different even from sampled live drums.

I mean obviously there's a huge amount of creativity within the parameters of "mixing music" which is exemplified by the range of different types of producers who make it.

I guess I wonder what the point of electronic often 4/4 remixes released on 12s is if not for playing out, but then firstworldman is probably correct that it just doesn't fit with what I play, electrohouse/minimal/lindstromandco.

While it's not that weird that DFA is still lumped in with all the above, in that it does sort of sound similar, it's still almost as if it's determined to not be club music sometimes.

Some have likened that same binary to straight v. gay - not that they're identical, but that many of the same prejudices against "electronic" appear in the discomfort that many people have with homosexuals. I know this is ILM 101, but refreshers are often valuable.

The more we discuss the more convinced I become that the difference is basically that DFA drums have a room sound and that your standard-issue dance music drum sound doesn't.

Eppy, it's a long trip down the theory rabbit hole that you might not have much interest in taking, but the privileging of the sound of a "performance" rather than things electronically mediated (especially in supposedly "dance" music) are in fact part of this "gay"/"straight" aesthetic binary.

i'm a total sucker for any DFA remix, and probably the biggest James Murphy apologist you'll ever meet.

gay/ straight, live/ sampled, rock/ dance.... whatever. the unifying theme is that they set out to be a bridge between those two worlds and have (for the most part) succeeded. and i think that is awesome. no, they're not re-inventing the wheel, and yes they tend to trample over the original when doing a remix, but damn it if the ends don't justify the means.

that gorillaz remix (or half a dozen others) is a sure-fire floor-filler for me every time. and i'm usually playing to crowds that are 50/50 dance/rock.

04. Colours - Hot Chip

I have been so into the Over and Over/Breakdown 12" the last month or so.

Eppy, it's a long trip down the theory rabbit hole that you might not have much interest in taking, but the privileging of the sound of a "performance" rather than things electronically mediated (especially in supposedly "dance" music) are in fact part of this "gay"/"straight" aesthetic binary.

this is a totally ridiculous notion. james murphy's a drummer so they can record their own drum sounds. how on earth is using the tools at your disposal 'privileging the sound of a "performance"'??