That Yacht have chosen to cover “Nausea” is another stroke of genius for the Portland-based duo, who released one of the best albums in ages, 2009’s See Mystery Lights, released on the mighty DFA label. Yacht is musician Jona Bechtolt, who brought vocalist Claire L. Evans on as a full collaborator on See Mystery Lights, and Evans immediately mades things more complex; Yacht’s synth pop got a hefty dose of vital gender subversion, much like Cervenka and Doe’s tightrope tension benefited X. Indeed, on Yacht’s cover of “Nausea,” Bechtolt and Evans keep things stripped down to just bass and eerie synths, the smoky, angular quality recalling Gang of Four, Pylon, the Raincoats and Bush Tetras—post-punkers who combined funky minimalism with the politics that exist between men and women. This layer gives Yacht’s cover an additional frisson—and did we mention it’s catchy as hell, too?

Click here to view the embedded video.

Free Energy announced their upcoming album Stuck On Nothing (due late January 2010) with this namesake single, and it’s a perfect introduction to the now-Philly-based band (formerly known as Hockey Night, as befitting their Minnesotan origins!). What surprises about Free Energy is that their sound has absolutely zero to do with the punky disco party DFA has become famed for. Instead, Free Energy hail from the same retro era, just a different radio station: this is straight up classic rock, with melodic guitars and power-pop vocals straight outta the early Tom Petty / Knack/ Cars songbook. Per those influences, it’s insanely catchy and, erm, energetic? Forgive the pun, even if appropriate – just download this for a blast of immediate melody that rings with the brassiness of an AM radio blaring the Raspberries back in the ‘70s…

We’re fans of the DFA label here at Kspace, as you’ve probably figured out, so we’re always excited for a new release from them. The latest from the New York-based imprint, however, set us for a loop – in the best way. DFA of course is famed for enlivening dance music with rock band dynamics (a la LCD Soundsystem and the Rapture), retro-futurism (the Juan Maclean), and helping to spearhead the current neo-disco movement. But DFA also has their experimental side, which explains releases from the likes of Black Dice, Gavin Russom and Delia Gonzalez – and Hollow Me/Beautiful, the new album by Yura Yura Teikoku.

Reading that, you might be saying “Yura who?” In fact, in their Japanese homeland, Yura Yura Teikoku are something of a household name, having existed for two decades making uncategorizably beautiful psychedelic rock. Actually, YYT makes kaleidoscopic sounds that, while fairly avant in their approach, are far catchier than most of DFA’s more experimental fare. As well, it’s not hard to see how YYT’s akimbo vocal cadences have clearly influenced James Murphy’s singing in LCD Soundsystem, especially on the standout album track “Dekinai.” If anything, YYT’s playful combination of funk and freakiness recalls the swinging krautrock of

Can, or maybe even the Flaming Lips when they hit the perfect balance of oddness,  syncopated groove and trippy prog melody.  And in keeping with DFA tradition, “Dekinai” is, naturally, danceable – but on its own nutty terms, which seems apropos considering all involved.

In 2009 alone, DFA continues to hit new highs. The label’s new jacks like Woolfy and Holy Ghost! Have put out incredible material (check out Holy Ghost!’s infectiously squelching electro anthem “I Will Come Back” as proof). The CD release and remixes collections of LCD Soundsystems 45:33 project were as eye-opening as ever. As well, the teasers dribbled out of new LCD Soundsystem recordings suggest the group’s upcoming new album might even surpass LCD’s 2007 masterpiece, Sound of Silver. LCD frontman and DFA co-founder James Murphy has proven one of pop culture’s most profound, provocative and idiosyncratic personalities – he certainly rocks the jock vs. freak divide with aplomb with his ultimate-fighting obsession, and he’s brought an emphasis on artful lyrics that’s completely new to dance music. He also has a great record collection: Murphy demonstrates his enduring great taste on LCD’s latest single, “Bye Bye Bayou”, released to celebrate “Vinyl Saturday” on November 7.

“Bye Bye Bayou” is a cover: the original, per Murphy’s great taste, is by Alan Vega, lead singer for the great post-punk/electronic duo Suicide. The spare, reverbed-out twang of Vega’s original is ingeniously replaced here with totally insane disco-funk – phased drums, thumping basslines, and echoey, trippy sound effects galore. It’s as hypnotic as Vega’s original, but in a whole new way – as a late night, dubby, dancefloor beast with a brain, gradually introducing content into the addled clubber’s brain. As per Murphy’s Alan Vega redux, part of the fun of the DFA posse’s output is that, as forward looking as it is, it tweaks the past with the confidence of a true crate digger. In this universe, the old is celebrated as much as the new – Murphy and cohorts are wise enough to know that something ahead of its time from the past is going to sound just about right circa now; part of the fun of combing through the label’s discography is catching all the trainspotter references.

Occasionally DFA indulges Murphy’s historical-curator instincts, like in the label’s reissues of epochal NYC punk-funkers Liquid Liquid, and the results have typically proven revelatory. This tendency continues, in DFA’s new, expanded, re-mastered re-release of Pylon’s Chomp. A college-rock classic from ancient times (circa 1983), Chomp blended the splayed post-punk harmonics of the U.K. (Gang of Four) and Chicago (Big Black) schools with the Americana jangle (R.E.M.) and off-kilter, homegrown quirk (early B-52s) of their Athens, Georgia hometown. Ten years after its release, Chomp sounded like an out-of-date curio from the previous decade; in 2009, however, the album seems gloriously prescient.

While the chiming guitar line in Chomp’s hypnotic semi-hit “Crazy” definitely has a parallel in early R.E.M. (who covered the song as the b-side on their “Driver 8” single), the album follows more a dancey, post-punk edge – all jaggedly ironic James Brown chicken-scratch guitars, effects-laden feedback atmosphere, and thumping disco beats filtered through a live indie-rock drummer (the indomitable, innovative Curtis Crowe). In “Four Minutes,” you hear the kind of abstract rock-electronic deconstruction that would lay the foundation for groundbreaking landmarks like Radiohead’s Kid A; I would be shocked as well to discover Karen O never heard singer Vanessa Briscoe Hay’s vocals on “Yo-Yo.” Most impressively, throughout Chomp this guitar-bass-drums-driven quartet creates a thrilling dynamic interplay – the lurches between loud and soft, artful syncopation and driving thump, are what give the songs their distinctive swing. All this comes through much better than ever before thanks to sensitive, thorough remastering. These sonics are, not surprisingly, utterly in line with the DFA as we know it today – in particular, the relentlessly rhythmic intensity of the proceedings. May DFA continue to shake its rhythm stick at grooves both young and aged: Murphy and co.’s b.s. detector hasn’t failed us yet, and pop, dance music, whatever – it’s all the better for it.

Yacht made one of 2009’s best albums with See Mystery Lights, but this new dub version of one of its standout tracks, “Waste of Time,” proves timeless: it could’ve come from a mid-‘80s vinyl twelve-inch – the kind that could only be found in a back rack at an obscure record store in New York City.  Vocalist Claire Evans has that kind of detached yelp that recalls Romeo Void and Bush Tetras, and Yacht’s primary sonic architect Jona Bechtolt creates ironic dancefloor mayhem out of the kind of arpeggiated synths and disco bass percolating on a Yaz or New Order extended remix.

All these elements, of course, make Yacht utterly au courant – especially with the classic percussion frenzy that anchors “Waste of Time,” a hallmark of Yacht’s label, DFA, which they share with fellow retro-futurist funkateers like LCD Soundsystem and The Juan Maclean. For a dub version, there’s a surprising amount of vocals, too, although Bechtolt does stream them through various reverbs and delays. Still there’s no mistaking it when Evans chants “I’m a waste of time”: oh, but what a glorious one it is. With bubbling, infectious tracks like this, Yacht can waste our time anytime.

If you are in the LA area, check out Yacht tomorrow at Discotheque @ Temporary Spaces 2 4658 Melrose Ave