Listen Death From Above

DFA label spotlight on Red Bull Music Academy Radio

Ever since the first Juan Maclean and LCD Soundsystem promos started floating around back in the early 2000s, the DFA lightning has flashed through plenty of dancehalls and whisked music lovers away to a punky disco paradise. Let's take a look through some of the artists in the family, and limber up to cut some rug.

The Juan Maclean and LCD Soundsystem have been the foundations that DFA was built on. John Maclean and LCD mastermind James Murphy met each other through Sub Pop band Six Finger Satellite, and a DIY attitude and punk aesthetic still runs through their work today. When James started the label with friend (and seasoned Mo' Wax vet) Tim Goldsworthy back at the close of the century, John Maclean was one of the first people they thought to release - and he proved to be pretty sturdy, only recently dropping his second full-length for DFA along with massive 12"s such as Happy House and One Day.

But while these two stalwarts keep on keepin' on, the DFA family has grown into something like the Breakfast Club of New York's club scene. As early as 2002, DFA had an unlikely pop moment, when Murphy and Goldsworthy took another former Sub Pop act, The Rapture, straight into The House Of Jealous Lovers to produce their second album Echoes. The LP got rave reviews from indie and dance gazettes alike, eventually got picked up by the powers that be, and sparked a post-punk revival that still resonates through clubland (and your little sister's teenage room) seven years later.

Andy Butler's multi-limbed multi-sexed Hercules and Love Affair had the discotheque on lock with their Antony Hegarty-featuring über-anthem Blind (that even made Frankie Knuckles knock out his best piece of remix work in years) in 2007, while Holy Ghost! took their reel to reel and analogue synth combinations to new heights with scene-stealing remixes for Phoenix, MGMT, and Jazzanova, this year.

But DFA's not just a Big Apple phenomenon. Aside from west coastin' with the melodically-eared Woolfy in LA, and linking with his n her's disco shamen Yacht from Portland, like-minded producers have also popped up in London and Perth to join in the mirrorball bonanza. Mock & Toof bring some London grit to proceedings, with the huge catalogue of M&T remixes and anthems always causing havoc in the club, while Capracara harks back to the original acid-drenched era of '87. Hot Chip mustn't be left out of this geographical jamboree, and perhaps DFA's most well-known artists are thoroughly London-ish, but levitate on a plane all of their own. On the other side of the equator, the Canyons (featuring class of Academy '06 Fred Cherry) have been pulling dawn-tinged shapes on beaches all over Australia, and make an essential DFA outpost since the release of their Fire Eyes EP a couple of months ago.

Where ever you are, DFA are here to remind you that the moment is precious, so don't squander it. Carpe diem!

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