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. 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.”) 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. More

“What could have been a mere anthology of the label's uniformly excellent 2004 output is, additionally, a meticulously assembled personal narrative. This is a label that balances its musical and commercial aspirations with an earthy, no-bullshit disposition and-- let's say it-- the world's best fucking handclaps.” - Nick Sylvester, Pitchfork, in the heady days of 2004. Behold, Compilation #2. A compendium what are arguably the best prime-era DFA cuts, mostly all recorded and/or remixed at the old DFA Studios on W. 13th Street (with some notable exceptions), released as 12-inches and then compiled onto a 3xCD set for convenience because, at the time, people actually bought CDs more than vinyl. Now, in the spirit of time not really being much of a linear thing anymore, and for our own selfish desire to have this version of Liquid Liquid’s “Bellhead,” produced by the DFA, finally committed to wax, we have reverse engineered this thing back onto vinyl and presented it as a four-record boxed set. We went back and found the master tapes or files for each song - a not insignificant effort given our habit of disorganization. We then rather painstakingly resequenced and remastered it with the guy we trust with such things: Bob Weston at Chicago Mastering Service. The lacquers Bob cut were plated and pressed at what we believe to be one of the best pressing plants in the country: QRP in Salina, Kansas. We tell you all of this to say: we took this shit pretty seriously. Because we felt like it was important and because we felt like some folks would really appreciate it. It sounds remarkable. It looks great. (Rob Carmichael re-did the original packaging, adding a new photo from DFA OG Tim Saccenti from one of the original parties at W. 13th St.) Of course, we somehow can’t stop ourselves from making labeling errors - Pixeltan’s “That’s the Way I Like It” somehow escaped the center labels on the fourth record. It’s kind of the DFA curse. Has to be! 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. More

Veneno hits Dark Entries! Spain’s most loved transgender TV star arrives on the label in celebration of Madrid Pride on June 30th. Cristina Ortiz fled her home in Almeria at age 13. While working as a sex worker in the Parque del Oeste in Madrid, she was discovered by the TV program “Este Noche Cruzamos el Mississippi”. Her acerbic wit and candid descriptions of life as a sex worker (including graphic use of the microphone as a visual aid) struck program host and director Pepe Navarro, who recognized a star when he saw one. As a regular on the show, La Veneno (The Poison) became a TV sensation and an icon for the trans community. Her music career began in 1996 with the release of “Veneno Pa Tu Piel”, a sassy but mournful Eurobeat number about forbidden love with her johns. The flipside features “El Rap De La Veneno”, a house track over which Veneno improvises some of her famous catchphrases, including her iconic “Digoooo!”. The release was a hit, selling over 50,000 copies in Spain. Two different mixes of both tracks are included on this reissue. Each copy includes an insert with lyrics, notes, and a photo of La Veneno. Celebrate Madrid Pride with these ecstatic gay anthems! More

Repress!

On Back Up: Mexican Tecno Pop, Dark Entries brings us 10 divergent tracks of Mexican electronics from 1980-1989, full of skittering analog drum boxes and saucy synthesizer hooks. 8 of these songs were culled from the 2005 CD-only compilation Backup: Expediente Tecno Pop on AT-AT records. Also included are two previously unreleased cuts. This release marks the first time many of these songs will have appeared on vinyl; it is also the first ever vinyl compilation of Mexican New Wave and post-punk.

While synth pop and obscure electronics from Europe and the United States have been extensively documented, much less attention has been paid to such offerings from the periphery. Back Up serves as a vital document of Mexico’s flourishing DIY scene in the 1980’s, surveying a wide range of styles and moods. By using home recording techniques, the bands featured here were able to circumvent relying on the expensive studios of the era. Tracks by Avant Garde, Vandana, and Silueta Pálida mine the kind of dreary-but-infectious wave that long-time Dark Entries fans will celebrate. Meanwhile, Volti and Artefacto offer a floor-ready pop sound that has echoes of NY freestyle, with Latin percussion and boxy beats. But darker turns are present as well, with Década 2’s New Beat-inflections and electro experiments of Syntoma and their side project Escuadrón Del Ritmo.

Back Up: Mexican Tecno Pop was remastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios. The sleeve is a neon retro-futurist design by Gwenaël Rattke. Also included is a 12-page booklet printed on neon green, pink, and orange paper, which features photographs, band biographies, lyrics, and liner notes. More