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L.A.'s De Lux are a post-disco dance-punk DIY duo that sound like they could have come out of 1979 or 1982 just as easily as today. Founders and multi-instrumentalists Sean Guerin and Isaac Franco didn’t meet so much as simply appear to each other, sometime before high school ended and after learning to correctly fall off skateboards began. Even at age 18, however, it was the kind of connection that had been years in the making. Sean had been writing songs since he was 15 and had spent recent years recording and re-recording his own songs. And Isaac had been on a strict diet of classic and obscure disco and boogie music since he too was 15, figuring out the original source of hip-hop’s greatest samples thanks to an older brother with a DJ sideline and an enviable collection. They both were after the same thing in music—the groove, they say, where the bass and the beat align in a perfect way that makes you want a song to go on forever.
Ten years on from their well-received debut album, Voyage, the band now has four full length releases under their belt, including 2022's "Do You Need A Release?" Funny, profound & easy to groove to, De Lux has a host of influences ranging from 80’s new wave of the Tom Tom Club to the experimentation and imagery of The Clash’s “Sandinista!” to the cerebral DFA disco era.
Dan Tyler and Conrad McDonnell, aka Idjut Boys, are an English duo whose dub-heavy home songs incorporate their playful love of life. The duo met in the late '80s in Cambridge discovering that they shared a passion for similar music. Soon after, both moved to London and established the U-Star parties. The Idjuts' fusion of dub, house, and techno soon caught on and landed them gigs DJing all over the world.
McDonnell and Tyler established U-Star Records in 1993, releasing their debut 12" Idjut Boy. They continued releasing numerous 12"s throughout the 90's up to the current period consisting of original productions, along with remixes & re-edits of obscure and not-so-obscure material by other artists and a handful of DJ mixes. A proper Idjut Boys studio album, Cellar Door, was released on Smalltown Supersound in 2012. This was followed by Versions, an album of reworks of material from throughout the duo's career, in 2015.
On this 12" vinyl, the Idjuts remix a single, "What's Life" from De Lux's most recent "Do You Need A Release?"
“De Lux have concocted the perfect mix of disco, post-punk and funk"
KCRW
"New Summers" by De Lux - originally from their latest album Do You Need A Release? gets a reconstruction by Jason Bentley
Jason Bentley is a Los Angeles based DJ and Grammy nominated record Producer. During his tenure as Music Director of acclaimed SoCal radio station KCRW, Jason consistently supported De Lux as host of the daily music program Morning Becomes Eclectic and ongoing Saturday night mix show Metropolis.
“I love the band” remarked Jason “and after hearing “New Summers” I became obsessed with the idea of a different song arrangement - not so much a remix - but rearranging existing elements. The song already has all this smoldering Disco energy, and I wanted to bring that out more and shape it so the song hit differently. I reached out to the band with the idea, and thankfully the guys let me pull apart the original multi-tracks and create the version I was hearing in my head."
"As a lover of music and skateboarding, I thought They Call This Love would be a great song to mesh the two worlds. I've picked up skating again for the past 2 years and have met incredible people. Grabbed some of them for a session in downtown LA, as well as a bunch of high schools and notable spots. Skateboarding is so community based that it felt good to just go out with everyone and have an adventure. The song is about love, the ups and downs, the good and bad, and the hard work it requires. Landing a trick after 40 tries in 90 degree heat only to have all your buds there to cheer you on, I think represents love in so many ways." - Sean Guerin of De Lux
Following the release of "New Summers" last month, De Lux drop new single "Morning Misses Me" from their upcoming album Do You Need A Release? They had this to say on the gorgeous piano ballad, out now: "Morning Misses Me is about forever being a night owl. No matter the noise or the time, mornings are always missed." Read more about it on CLASH.