The American indie music label The Death From Above or simply DFA is undoubtly one of the icons of the modern dance music, especially when it comes to live rock bands playing disco and electronic music influenced stuff. Immediately after releasing the breakthrough albums of the Rapture and James Murphy's own LCD Soundsystem, the DFA established itself as one of the most interesting and original labels at that time. In attempts to describe the DFA sound, critics even coined the term disco-punk or punk-funk. As the time went by, many bands with similiar approach appeared - and now, in the era of nu rave and bloghouse, despite all this rock'n'roll 4 a dancefloor hype, the DFA bands and projects still sound quite outstanding.
This was just a small introduction to the DFA and you should know it all, unless you're not alienated to the current streams in disco music. So, I was quite excited when learnt that a band and couple of DJs from the DFA camp would perform at Exit. As the first one, Prinzhorn Dance School gave an amazing performance. They are not your avarage dancepunk or singer-songwriter act. There are just 2 persons in the band operating on a fancy setup: a girl on bass and stomping two pedals for kick-drums, plus a guy playing chords on guitar, with his legs operating with snares and occasionally hiting toms and cymbals with a stick furiosuly. So, basically they both were operating on a single modified drum kit, which supposedly requires very good interaction, which was in a way very physical. Naturally, sometimes the guy missed a snare beat slightly, but it just gave some extra swing and that special lo-fi feel. In two words I'd describe their music as a minimal punk.
Afterwards, a guy from Mock & Toof had a great and groovy disco set. Their original productions are well crafted disco- and funk-infected house tunes. Apart from working with the DFA, they also have releases on a very recommended label from UK - Tiny Sticks Records.
He was followed by a DJ set from Tim Sweeney - the official DFA's deejay, who also hosts Beats In Space radioshow on NYC's WNYU (however, you can hear his shows on his BIS page too, tune in). The set was amazing mixture of disco, house, italo, some acid house and everything in between and beyond - very groovy and refreshing from the omnipresent Berlin's techno/house or nu rave sound.
Well, there is no big point in describing DJ sets, it's enough said both DJs were great, and I can just advise not to miss them if you have a chance to see them around. See you!
No comments:
Post a Comment