Death From Above 1979

So how’s the new year rollin’ for you lot? I’m busy working on lots of exciting new stuff, more details of which will follow soon I’ve been messin with the look of this blog so feel free to lemme know what you think, even if it isn’t nice, all feedback is good feedback & all that.

Soooo…the new playlist. I’m following all the dark electronica from last week with a brief history of the current dance-punk revival. We kick off with the classic House Of Jealous Lovers from one of the key early noughties revivalists of the genre, The Rapture. Hailing from New York, they largely found fame with the release of their second album Echoes in 2003. They may look and sound a bit girly, but the deep bassy house vibes of this track are spot-on and gave birth to a whole new re-emergence of the 70’s genre.

A few years later saw the antics of the utterly awesome and now defunct Canadian duo Death From Above 1979 (pictured) assaulting our eardrums. The members, Jesse F. Keeler on bass, synths, backing vocals and Sebastien Grainger on vocals and drums, added much more  of a heavy metal influence into the mix. In sum, they really took the baton of dance-punk and battered it with a metal pole until it was covered with bloody bruises. Just listen to the selection of tracks from their one and only album to see how innovative they were. I love Little Girl – it sounds like Led Zeppelin doing dance punk; flippin amazing!! Damn shame this band no longer exists, but both guys are involved in seperate new projects; Keeler in MSTRKRFT and Grainger in Sebastien Grainger & The Mountains.

There’s a nice circularity to this blog post – Before they went kaput, Death From Above 1979 became embroiled in a bizarre row with Death From Above Records in New York over their name. (The band were originally called Death From Above before the dispute forced them to add Grainger’s birth year onto their name as a suffix.) Death From Above Records also had a heavy involvement with The Rapture, producing their first two albums, and are generally accepted as the epicentre of the current dance-punk revival having acts like Hot Chip, Yacht and Hercules & Love Affair on their books.

It’s probably no surprise to learn that one of the founders of the label James Murphy went on to develop his own dance-punk act, the critically-acclaimed LCD Soundsystem. While their debut material was impressive, it wasn’t anywhere near as slick as most of the material on their second album, Sound Of Silver. Again, I had a hard time deciding which tracks to include, but then plumped for the first three. They’ve obviously brought a more disco-influenced vibe to the genre, but it’s all so unbelievably accomplished. Get Innocuous is amazing, Time To Get Away is more stripped down and flaunts Murphy’s shouty vocals while North American Scum is a scathing stab at…well, I really wouldn’t like to hazard a guess as to who that number may be about…

Full playlist:

1. The Rapture – House Of Jealous Lovers (from Echoes 2003)
2. Little Girl – Death From Above 1979 (from You’re A Woman, I’m A Machine 2004)
3. Romantic Rights - Death From Above 1979 (from You’re A Woman, I’m A Machine 2004)
4. Sexy Results - Death From Above 1979 (from You’re A Woman, I’m A Machine 2004)
5. Get Innocuous – LCD Soundsystem (from Sound Of Silver 2007)
6. Time To Get Away - LCD Soundsystem (from Sound Of Silver 2007)
7. North American Scum - LCD Soundsystem (from Sound Of Silver 2007)