We'd like to take a moment to introduce you to one of our partner labels, Ghostly International. They are a label with fantastic taste (obvs, that's why we wanted to partner with them) and, as we've discovered from their blog, a tremendous work ethic. Expect a RCRD LBL-exclusive from them very time soon, but for now, be sure to check out the link they provided to a killer DJ set by Tim Goldsworthy from their joint Halloween party with the DFA. It's always great to see friends working together, especially when those friends all happen to put out awesome records.
This Halloween we joined forces with DFA records to throw a party at Brooklyn's Studio B. T&T (DFA's Tim Goldsworthy and TIm Sweeney), Morgan Geist, Juan Maclean and Derek Plaslaiko manned the decks and motivated some very serious ass shaking, with lives acts Invisible Conga People taking the stage for a beautiful and intense set followed by Matthew Dear's Big Hands closing out their fall tour with an explosive, pulsating live show. Jeffery Sfire and his partner Kevin Avery (dressed as Italo duo Fun Fun) held it down in the side room spinning from all ends of the spectrum: from creepy electro to acid to super-gay disco (yours truly walked in, heard Hieroglyphic Being's "Kill Bill" and almost danced through a wall). Needless to say- a good time was had be all. No exaggeration- we checked; they all had fun. Here are pictures, courtesy of letsbecomefamous.com, to prove it. Tim and Tim's live set from that night is also available as a memento for those who were there/ jealousy inducer for those who couldn't make it.
Dusker, the latest from Michigan trio (and Ghostly artist) KILN, infuses the entire concept of electronic composition with an almost impossible organic sense, its lush songs packed with flourishes that appear and disappear, cycling, spilling and disintegrating across the stereo field. Entertainment Weekly, after choosing Dusker as one of its "Weekly Picks" and stamping it with a respectable "A-" went on to note that "...the beats flutter and fidget and ultimately hit as hard as anything a night club have to offer...guitars and keyboards echo and distort until they are barely distinguishable from the soothing whole..." and PAPERTHINWALLS observes KILN "...nodding to multiple genres without bowing to any, marrying digital and meatworld sounds so adroitly on Dusker that identifying sources is both irresistible and impossible..." [ full review here ]. Needless to say we are proud to be releasing an album of such subtle, hypnotic beauty. A DRM-free download of Dusker is available at the The Ghostly Store.
One of the coolest parts about having all of our partner labels blogging on RCRD LBL is that we're able to get a really interesting mix of perspectives across our network. In the case of Bay Area dance label dirtybird, we thought it'd be an interesting proposition to see how their intelligent (and totally FUN) take on dance music (aka vinyl culture) would translate to a totally digital format. We could go on about the great 12" singles they've been dropping lately, but we thought you should get the info straight from the bird's mouth. Check their blog for a quick history on the label and check back soon for some hot tunes courtesy of Mr VonStroke and company.
As it turns out, there is some justice in this world, because some greater force has allowed the holy union of Spank Rock and Mos Def to trade verses on a Benny Blanco remix of Justice's dancefloor smash hit "D.A.N.C.E.".
"D.A.N.C.E." is easily the most memorable club track of 2007, Spank Rock is the hottest, most-acclaimed hip hop collective in the game, and we're pretty sure Mos Def is this year's front runner for the Nobel Freshness Prize. We hope this track will make your day a little bit better. And with that, enjoy.
It only makes sense to roll things off right by letting you get to know a bit about one of the most beloved artists to have emerged on KOMPAKT ever--THE FIELD.
Goes without saying that it's been one hell of a whirlpast year for Stockholm-based Axel Wilner--a year ago none of us (including Axel) ever imagined everything that's happened to the guy... his album From Here We Go Sublime immediately leaped to become the biggest crossover indie-dance releases on KOMPAKT since BURGER/INK's Las Vegas was licensed to MATADOR way back when... we've been elated by the many people would be touched by his 'nu-gaze' style of combining familiar music sources into layers and layers of blissful repetition.
Hopefully some of you witnessed the fitness as he opened for !!! on their recent tour of the states, or heard his brand-spanking new remix of our favorite BATTLES song Tontoon fellow RCRD LBL-mates WARP... Brazilian readers can now go see him out on the road with LCD SOUNDSYSTEM... we'll be posting a tour diary from that jaunt soon, so stay tuned.
In the meantime, for those of you that yet uninitiated with our sailor boy, we're glad to offer you this firm fan favorite for free, "Over the Ice".
Well, why hello there and welcome to KOMPAKT's first 'official' place on the world-wide web where you'll be able to get in one place music, recipes, stories and news about what is making us tick... we've been asked by the fine folks at RCRD LBL to let you know a bit about ourselves so here's an official blurb we have about KOMPAKT which should explain what we do here.
"Believe it or not it¹s almost 15 years since Kompakt emerged as a small record store in Cologne, Germany, uniting a collective of local musicians that included co-founders Jurgen Paape, Wolfgang Voigt (aka Mike Ink, GAS, Wasserman to name a few), his brother Reinhard Voigt and DJ/producer Michael Mayer. Today, Kompakt remains a community-driven business, expansion has allowed the record store to offer arguably the world¹s largest selection of electronic music, a distribution centre that houses over 60 exclusive record labels and over 200 others, booking agency, recording studios, the online shop KOMPAKT-MP3 and of course our Kompakt in-house record labels. Oh, and there's a kitchen, too."
dirtybird (it's lowercase) is something like a phenomenon. In 2003, while young filmmaker Barclay Crenshaw (aka Claude VonStroke) was finishing his film ("Intellect") about how to become a famous DJ, he ran into a problem. Namely, how to license the classic tracks from the over 40 DJs he interviewed for the lengthy project. Ever the industrious mind, Crenshaw recruited a few friends to start making original music for the project, including one Justin Martin. As they cut tracks, it suddenly became apparent that musicmaking was the next step in the game.
dirtybird records was soon born and almost immediately the label had a bona-fide hit. "Deep Throat" from the amicable VonStroke took off on an international level and Martin's "Cicada" soon followed suite. Once Crenshaw dropped "The Whistler" the table was set: dirtybird became an imprint even the largest DJs followed in earnest.
The winning formula sprung from dirtybird's approach to dance music. "It's dance music, it's supposed to be fun" became a kind of mantra to the core producers: VonStroke, Justin and Christian Martin and their friend Worthy, who provided the soundsystem (and name) that bore the label's identity. Dirtybird was originally an outdoor, Golden Gate Park party where the four met.
So now, four years on, the label has come to represent a dance music that is a bit tongue-in-cheek, a bit cheeky, even. From VonStroke's "Beware of the Bird" to Worthy's debut hit "Irst_te?" there is little elitist about dirtybird. The idea, frankly, is to make dance music with a kind of whimsy that overlooks scenes, genre and pretensions. Dance music made for one thing -- to make you dance.
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