DFA Records

Younger generations today get speedier by the litter.

Most were raised on at least one of the following: quick-cutting MTV-style television, overflows of faster (and faster!) computers and games, drugs such as Ecstasy (suburbs), meth (rural) or a whole host of legal A.D.D./bi-polar mind-fuck prescriptions—and fast food. No wonder kids like to get their freak on in dance clubs and sweat all night (woo!). They have lots of chemically stored energy.

This may be why many in the so-called urban “post-rock” world have come to accept that “rock is dead” unless it can compete with the mass appeal of more popular dance club music, from hip-hop to techno/rave crud. The law of monkees says you must obey: Youth is king.

Pioneering in the crossbreeding of rock and dance music, Manhattan’s DFA Records is a hot young label begun by the NYC production duo James Murphy (Plantain Recordings) and Tim Goldsworthy (founding member of U.N.K.L.E.).

Riding one of the latest “it” sounds espoused by jacket-sniffing record fetishists and butt-scratching critics alike, “electroclash” (ugh) is a pounding, electronic-influenced dance rock style as well as a term disdained by many of its alleged proponents. DFA deals mainly in 12 inches of underground artists that combine thumping, electronica/mixing experience with indie/punk roots for a savvy sound currently lighting up certain NYC clubs (which means it may just be the biggest thing in Chico around the year 2013).

There’s a hodgepodge of sounds represented on the label, led by their most popular group, former San Franciscans gone Big Apple The Rapture (dubbed the Disco Strokes for their energetic punk-meets-disco vibe; check out “House of Jealous Lovers” single). Other groups include: the Juan McClean (the keyboardist from electro rockers Six Finger Satellite; check the Adrock remix “By the Time I Get to Venus"); the strange and noisy Black Dice; and LCD Soundsystem (whose catchy house-like single, “Losing My Edge,” offers a funny, tongue-in-cheek ode to the stupidity of trying to keep up with trends and is currently blowing up in the UK).

You can learn more about the label at dfarecords.com.