Ryan and I (Gibby) met years ago in New York through mutual friends and mutual hangouts. We traded records together, hung out often, and DJ'd together now and then. We immediately clicked because we had similar music tastes… we were both obsessive collectors of records and movies, and we shared bizarre interests in the rare, freaky, and obscure. After I moved to LA in 2005, I kept in touch with Ryan and we often mail-traded art, photocopied articles, records, CDrs, and tapes.
Dais Records was kicked off in the summer of 2007 after a few days of talking on the phone about releases that we wished existed, records we wished we could find… The idea for the label really came out of us wanting to create objects that we ourselves wanted to own. Now, almost four years and 20 releases later, our catalog has grown to include not only formerly hard to find obscurities but also new artists that share our vision and our interests, artists that are aligned with that thread and aesthetic that ties our catalog together.
Ryan and I are going to talk about a few of our past, present, and future releases here.
Ryan:
COUM Transmissions – DAIS 008
COUM Transmissions was the transgressive performance art group founded by Genesis P-Orridge in 1968 which later included Cosey Fanni-Tutti and Peter 'Sleazy' Christopherson later on in the early 70s. Mostly known for turning into industrial music pioneers Throbbing Gristle, COUM was extremely controversial for their actions, which involved violence, deviant sexual behavior, and graphic imagery. There are boxes of reels containing COUM Transmissions music recordings from the late 60s/early 70s, and unheard sound collages that had never been released until Dais decided to commit these recordings to vinyl for a massive series of limited LP's.
Deviation Social – DAIS 012
Myself and Gibby both were fascinated with the Deviation Social 7-inch from 1984, so much that when we started the label one of our top priorities was to find the man behind Deviation Social and reissue his overlooked industrial works. Our friend Monte Cazzaza finally put us in touch with Art, who was the man behind DS, and to our surprise, he had more recording than we were ever aware of, thus allowing Dais to release a numbered series of LP's containing his selected body of work spanning the Deviation Social career of 1981-86. These LPs have really brought crude, minimal industrial music from the bygone cassette-trading 80s to a much larger audience.
aTelecine – DAIS 015
For the past few years, Sasha Grey has been a good friend of the label, always supported everything we did. Last year she sent us some tracks that her and some cohorts were working on that later became her debut LP on Dais entitled …And Six Dark Hours Pass. Stunning soundtrack to an unclaimed film sounding a lot like a revisited Sleep Chamber, something very Lynchian about what aTelecine conjures up.
Ghédalia Tazartès – DAIS 021 (Coming soon)
Dais is reissuing the groundbreaking Diasporas LP by nomadic Frenchman, Ghédalia Tazartès in the Spring of 2011. This album is a classic within the French avant garde, originally released with an extremely small run in 1979. Soon after its release, the record fell into silent obscurity, only to garnish attention by its inclusion on the famous Nurse With Wound list. This record is really warped with ideas unheard at the time… faint gypsy roarings, piano vaudeville waltz, vocal warbling and musical anarchy.
Gibby:
Cold Cave – DAIS 004
When Wes sent us the demo of some of the stuff he'd been making in his bedroom under his new moniker “Cold Cave” we loved it instantly. I think he was a little surprised we wanted to release it right then and there but it had a sound that resonated with us right off the bat. It was nostalgic but new, dark, dancy – referential without being contrived, nostalgic… it reminded me of many bands that I loved and had grown up listening to, and it's not often that a new record makes you long for or remember a time that's past. It was also a pretty clear departure music-wise from a lot of the stuff Wes had done previously, so the record was just cool to make – and people liked it.
Tor Lundvall – DAIS 019 (Available)
I've been a massive fan of Tor's work since the mid 90s, when I first heard him on Tony Wakeford's “On” compilation – and I'd grown to love his artistic contributions to the Sol Invictus records throughout the years. His music is truly the perfect companion to his incredible paintings: ethereal, dreamlike, solemn – referred to by Tor himself as “Ghost Ambient”. The Dais release I'm the most proud of is our recent Tor Lundvall box set The Seasons Unfold, which was actually in the planning phases for years, even before we released his incredible Sleeping and Hiding LP in 2009! The box set is a collection of his remastered early works “Ice”, “The Mist”, and “Under the Shadows of Trees” (with extra bonus tracks), along with a new album Turning, which contains select ambient pieces from Autumn Calls as well as unheard tracks from that period. Each album represents a season, and all of the aforementioned recordings accompanied me through the last 10-12 years of my life – so working with Tor on a release that was obviously personal to him and also special to me was incredible. I highly recommend looking into his work (music and paintings) if you aren't familiar… night walks in the woods, and daydreaming. Beautiful.
Iceage – DAIS 020 (Available)
It’s not often that you hear a perfect record… or a record created with such honesty and energy that it makes you drop absolutely everything, listen intently, and then completely readjust your outlook on music. With an average age of 17, this Copenhagen quartet has somehow managed to redefine our perception entirely, and we love it. Uncontrived, pure – this record is a youthful assault of downer no-wave hardcore, wise beyond it’s years. Dais is proud to unveil Iceage here in the States with our special limited edition LP of their first album New Brigade, originally released in January of 2011 on Escho in Denmark. Our version contains two exclusive bonus tracks, and comes with a four-page foldout lyric and photo insert, in a hand-numbered thick stock matte sleeve with gloss overlaid artwork
Lord Foul – DAIS 019 (Available)
Lord Foul was the fucked up black metal basement project of Roach (Son of Dog, Harassor, Forsaken, Rectal Christ), who recorded these tracks in 1993 in Louisville Kentucky. Released on a handful of cassettes to give to friends and trade with other black metal artists overseas, he made two demos: “Killing Raping Burning” and “The Devils Advocate”, both of which quickly fell into obscurity, only to be unearthed by rabid fans years later via websites and blogs after one of his tracks, “I Burn For You” was covered and recorded by Nargaroth. We are really excited about this release, as it's been in the works for years! This LP will feature both demos, a foldout insert with new 2011 liner notes, and will come in a black matte sleeve with foil embossed artwork by Bryan Burk (Darkhorse Tattoo). “I'M READY TO DIE!!!!!!!!!!!!”
