Underskog

Diskjokke inntar bula med sine deilige Disco perler, og har med seg en av hodene bak labelet DFA Records, Jonathan Galkin.

DFA Records:

DFA Records seemed like a skyrocket at first, but it’s proven itself to be one of the most durable labels around—dance or otherwise. Founded by the original DFA production team of James Murphy and Tim Goldsworthy and Jonathan Galkin, who runs the label’s day-to-day operations, DFA Records went into business ten years ago, releasing its first 12-inches, The Rapture’s House of Jealous Lovers and LCD Soundsystem’s Losing My Edge / Beat Connection, in early 2002, and has been shifting shape, cannily and smartly, ever since. The label has been leaving deep imprints all over the place ever since—what serious dance-music lover can imagine the last half-decade without the Carl Craig remix of Delia Gonzales & Gavin Russom’s “Relevee,” or Still Going’s “Still Going Theme” and “Spaghetti Circus,” or The Juan MacLean’s “Happy House,” or Hercules and Love Affair’s “Blind” (original or Frankie Knuckles remix) or Walter Jones’ “Living without Your Love,” or Benoit & Sergio’s “Principles / Everybody”? That’s just the icing, and it leaves LCD Soundsystem out of the picture entirely, not to mention divots into indie rock (Yacht) and noise (Black Dice). There’s a lot going on at DFA; it slides in easily next to Warp and Kompakt as a visionary label that has abundant room in its vision. DFA’s vision (not to mention its ears) belongs largely to Galkin, who befriended Murphy in 2001, when the latter had a DJ residency at the East Village’s cozy Plant Bar, owned by Marcus Lambkin (AKA future DFA signee Shit Robot), where Luke Jenner of the Rapture sometimes tended bar. The deal was sealed when he heard an early version of “House of Jealous Lovers.” “A lot of the music the Rapture came out of, to be totally honest, I wasn’t that familiar with from my old job,” Galkin says. “I’m a quick learner. I got it; I understood where everything was laid out on the North American map, what was happening where. I realized a lot of the sounds, going back and buying stuff, Six Finger Satellite—it started to make sense, the lines drawn.” Galkin’s background is a part of the interview below, which took place at DFA Records’ West Village offices—a small apartment with kitchen and shower that once served as Murphy’s residence—in July. But we mostly focused on the inner workings of DFA, its history and its tea-cosy-friendly future.