Comment: DFA's Five Best Twelves

Image source: The Quietus

I've been a member of eMusic for longer than I care to remember and they recently invited me to submit a top five list to their site from their catalogue. Rather than focusing on new bands and artists I thought I would do something a bit different and select some of the best tracks from one of the many labels on the site. One of the best things about eMusic is how easy it is to browse by label and I regularly find myself checking through the latest releases from my favourites. So which label to pick? There could only really be one choice...

DFA are obviously known for the involvement of James Murphy and their big ticket album releases for the Juan Maclean and The Rapture but there is much more to the label, including a number of fantastic 12" releases that often slip out with little fanfare. DFA and James Murphy have been a massive influence on me and my blog since 'Losing My Edge' first came out in 2002 - here I select five of the best songs from the various 12" releases DFA have put out over the years, with links to check them out on eMusic:

5. 'Two Different Ways (Original)' - Factory Floor

The most recent track on this list, 'Two Different Ways' is a synth heavy, post-industrial acid trip. I've selected it not only because it's good but also because it really captures a certain post-punk experimental spirit that the label has boasted since the beginning. Factory Floor mix live instrumentation with a lot of electronic synth work and it is that blending of rock DIY attitude and electronic avant garde that has always made the label great. This is presumably called 'Two Different Ways' because the release features two versions, the original and the 'Second Way' - a self-referential element that harks back to early DFA / LCD Soundsystem release 'Yeah', which similarly featured two versions (the 'Pretentious Version' and the 'Crass Version'). The divide here is similar - the other second version is a little subtler but I can't resist the more in your face original.

4. 'Yearning' - Black Van

'Yearning' seems too straight up to be a DFA release but somehow it came out anyway and I'm very glad it did. There isn't too much that needs to be said, this is just a really well done piece of Balearic disco. You could call it derivative but only if you have no soul - this is sunny, uplifting heaven.

3. 'Full Grown Man' - Benoit & Sergio

Benoit & Sergio are one of the artists I'm currently most excited about - they have had a couple of EPs out on DFA and every track on the EP this is taken from (Boy Trouble) is an absolute gem. Whilst Benoit & Sergio release music on dance labels and in the 12" / EP format typically used by dance music producers this isn't really dance music - it's closer to blissed out electronic pop. 'Full Grown Man' particularly, at seven-minutes long and with not much happening in it shines precisely because it does so little. It could be accused of being a mood piece, but that is fine with me - the warm 80s feel is sublime.

2. 'Gobline City (Holy Ghost! Remix)' - Panthers

Holy Ghost!'s take on Brooklyn hardcore band the Panthers' 'Goblin City' is that rare thing - a remix that is better than the original. In fact, it's so good that it is better than anything either Holy Ghost! or the Panthers have accomplished individually. Holy Ghost! probably deserve more of the credit though because most of the original gets thrown out and what you end up is nothing like a hardcore rock record but actually an aloof urban disco record but what makes it shine is the combination of the Panthers' guitar solo and the Holy Ghost! synthesised arpeggios about two thirds of the way in.

1. 'Spaghetti Circus' - Still Going

After Still Going dropped the fantastically catchy yet remarkably simply 'Still Going Theme' no-one thought they would be able to live up to it with the comeback and yet somehow they confounded expectations and dropped a follow up that was even better than that previous release. 'Spaghetti Circus' is probably the sexiest, most sunny, soulful house record I've ever heard, sounding like the music is made from pure sweat and sunblock. As with the Panthers record this is really a disco track and once again what really makes it is the fantastic guitar work - it may be perfect for those exciting summer sunsets on the white isle but it will work pretty much anywhere else too.

Album Review: Fabric 59 - Jamie Jones

Jamie Jones' album Don't You Remember The Future was reviewed on BlackPlastic.co.uk two years ago and it felt a bit like drinking Diet Coke when we'd rather go all out and fill our gut with The Real Thing. It's an accusation you could level at a fair number of contemporary artists but it's a fair one - who wants to settle for 'not quite as good as...'?

Jones' Fabric album is a bit of a surprise. Firstly because it isn't the fairly minimal tech I've come to expect from artists associated with Crosstown Rebels, the label Jamie calls home. But even more surprising is that fact that it is the most easy-going, celebratory Fabric albums in ages. But this isn't a thinking person's mix - the track listing is pretty obvious - but it's a great collection of disco and house cuts to soundtrack a party to.

There is a mixture of newer and older records on Fabric 59 but Jamie clearly isn't afraid to be obvious. There was a time when finding a new mix album without Felix Da Housecat on it would be more difficult than with. Despite that Jones drops 'Madame Hollywood', from Felix's defining Kittens and Thee Glitz LP, immediately before plunging into the reverb heavy 'Body Shiver' by Waifs & Strays. Thankfully it has been long enough since Felix mania that it just feels great to hear it again. Similarly Metronomy's mix Sebastien Tellier's 'La Ritournelle, shows up in the mix early on.

Fabric 59 is at its best in the closing third. Crazy P's 'Open For Service' is bonkers disco that feels every bit as classic as it aims to, with the most glamorously over the top chorus I've heard in ages. Holy Ghost's mix of 'Goblin City' by Panthers is the show stealer though. It's another track that has been around for an age but it never seems to have quite as much recognition as it deserves. If you haven't heard it you need to and it is here, at eight-minutes long, in pretty much full form. It melds house and disco like champagne and liquid gold, the inevitable guitar solo peak and subsequent break being one of the best things to feature on any Fabric album.

The pace is kept up through to the end. On Oppenheimer Analysis' 'The Devil's Dancers' Jones drops a track that harks back to times when the future sounded like the future rather than the past (just don't tell anyone it's only six years old). Soho808's 'Get Up Disco' is exactly as it says - a gorgeous loose rhythm and sparkling melody - and the stark 'Fear of Numbers' by Footprintz rounds things out.

Fabric 59 is almost in danger of being undermined - Jamie Jones has played it so obviously that it almost veers into parody, yet the final third of the album is so gorgeous I can't help but celebrate it.

BP x

Fabric 59 mixed by Jamie Jones is out now, available from Amazon.co.uk on CD and MP3 [affiliate links].