You must surrender. Because if you’ve followed Naum Gabo over the past 15 years – across various 12-inches, styles, and notable labels - and you’re listening to “F. Lux,” their first proper album, then you’re probably wondering how you wound up here, all the way down, barely able to see through the brain-clogging atmosphere and towering low-end. “F. Lux” is a deep, enthralling listen, alternating between moments of pounding, world-ending techno (“Schinokapsala” and “This 1”) and sharply imagined, surrealist scenes painted with metallic machines (“Aora” and “Haerstag”). There is light to be found in the darkness, but the only way out is through. Naum Gabo are Glasgow’s Jonnie Wilkes (also known as one-half of DJ duo Optimo) and James Savage (prolific mastering engineer). F. Lux was written and produced entirely by them at their Glasgow Hottrax Studios and mastered by James Savage. The album’s front cover artwork is a painting by cherished Scottish painter, Andrew Cranston. The vinyl was pressed at MPO in France using lacquers cut by Bob Weston in Chicago.

Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More

Dickie Landry’s saxophones have challenged, soothed, and blown minds around the world in his lengthy career as a jazz and avant-garde blower of the highest regard. He was a founding member of the Phillip Glass Ensemble and (according to Wikipedia lore) introduced Paul Simon to zydeco, one of the indigenous sounds of his native southern Louisiana.

Rarely, though, does Dickie’s saxophone make you want to get up and dance like a crazy person.

Such is the effect of “Hang The Rich,” a nugget of slinky, ecstatic punk-funk that was until recently completely lost to the sands of time. Recorded in 1986 (or thereabouts) in New Orleans and featuring vocalist Evelyn Erhard, percussionist Billy Ware, drummer Ricky Sebastian and Dickie himself on saxophones and a Roland Jupiter 4 synthesizer, it’s the kind of song that compels you to move any which way you can, drunk on indignance and the power of satan’s music.

The track came to DFA via LCD Soundsystem’s Korey Richey, who knows Dickie from back home in Louisiana. After a lengthy search, we located the original tapes in a storage locker somewhere in the Southeast and finally were able to get a clean, quality transfer done here at DFA HQ.

From there, we only had one person in mind for a more DJ-friendly edit: Glasgow’s JD Twitch, one half of Optimo and a selector of similarly puckish spirit. Twitch’s ability to contextualize these older, skronkier sounds for a modern dancefloor are in full display on his version, which hits hard and jagged but then opens up into those ineffable rapturous moments.

Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More

You’ve heard Stuart Bogie before because he’s played saxophone, clarinet, and flute on a lot of records. TV On The Radio, Foals, Sharon Van Etten, Beth Orton, Run the Jewels, Antibalas, the list goes on and on and on.

We connected with Stuart during the early clutches of COVID through Korey Richey, DFA Studios engineer and LCD Soundsystem band member.

Stuart had been cooped up in the apartment that he shared with his partner, Karyn, and their family. It was Karyn who suggested a restless Stuart start playing clarinet on Instagram Live every morning, a ritual he kept for 150 straight days. Along the way, he solicited drones and other sounds from his friends as accompaniment.

Korey asked James if he had anything lying around that might fit. Uncharacteristically, James said yes. There was this long, plaintive drone of treated piano made sometime in the 90s that he’d just found. And another similarly droning but slightly darker organ piece made for an installation in the mid-2000s. Stuart played over both in separate sessions, improvising these beautiful, delicate clarinet runs for the sheltered, live-streaming few.

We listened back to the recordings in the office and couldn’t shake how great they were. They felt like a decompression valve, relief from the persistent, creeping apocalypse. They deserved a more meaningful existence than that of a shitty MP3.

So, Stuart came into DFA and recorded them properly. This time Korey ran him through a stack of delay units that stretched and smeared that clarinet into each drone until they were one bewildering whole. Each recording clocked in at roughly twenty minutes - perfect side-long lengths. It all fell into place so naturally.

“Morningside” is the name of the album. Two tracks on two sides. Produced by Korey and James, mixed by James, mastered and cut by Bob. It’s out October 27. You can listen to a few snippets of each side and pre-order the vinyl below. (Since it’s only two “songs,” we aren’t releasing anything officially beforehand.)

A final, but important note: the cover features a detail of a photograph called “The Burial Vault” by the excellent photographer Gregory Crewdson, taken from his recent series “Eveningside.” (The full photograph is featured on a printed insert inside the record package.) A few months earlier, Gregory was finishing what would become “Eveningside” and asked James (a friend) if he might, y’know, have anything lying around. A video was being made about the work and music was needed. James sent these recordings, which evidently sort of stopped Gregory in his tracks. And just like that another piece of the puzzle fell into place. The connection was so natural that Stuart also finally found the title he’d been searching for (until that point, we’d been calling the record simply “Clarinet and Delay.”)

Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More

LIMITED EDITION RUN OF 1500 COPIES

Stretch 'em out and shake off the cobwebs - LCD Soundsystem have returned, in recorded form, from a 5-year hibernation. 'New Body Rhumba' was written and recorded for the new Noah Baumbach film, White Noise, which is an adaptation of the Don DeLillo novel. It’s classic LCD, all tight and brash, with a coda headed for the second star from the right and straight on 'till morning.

Single-sided 12'' vinyl, mastered and cut at 45rpm by Bob 'Sparklebear' Weston at Chicago Mastering Service, pressed at MPO in France.

Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More

We’ve unearthed some “lost” copies of a long-out-of-print DFA classic; four sides of ecstatic synthesizer improvisations from Delia Gonzalez and Gavilán Rayna Russom. Produced by the DFA at DFA for DFA.

Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More