By any metric you want to use, DFA Records has had the best year of their existence in 2007. LCD Soundsystem inched further into the mainstream and will likely be close to the apex of many year end lists. Prinzhorn Dance School and Shocking Pinks went a long way towards expanding what would normally be thought of as a "DFA" artist. Their long overdue reprint of Pylon's Gyrate was the first in hopefully a long line of impeccably chosen re-issues. Songs floated from Hot Chip's forthcoming 2008 disc suggest that they're not about to take a well earned breather. But all of this ruthless ambition has not come at the expense of the label's original raison d'etre, wider exposure for left-field dance music.
Brooklyn duo Holy Ghost! are one of the legion of acts who've released singles on DFA wax for the first time this year. Their first release, "Hold On," is modern disco par excellence, yet immediate enough to be minted an iTunes "single of the week." With synth flavors both lushly retro and nervously modern, it captures a through line that takes New York City dance music from it's fabulous Studio 54 past to its outlawed Footloose present. It's a celebration of the city itself, mainly. It's about enduring shitty jobs in order to drink from the cultural well, and about the probably misguided assumption that the lawless wild west shit hole of the seventies was somehow so much better. With the label's figurehead James Murphy ending his high profile album by proclaiming NYC almost unbearably lame, it's nice to know that he's got enough love left to champion such a heartfelt metropolitan ode.