Biography
Dan Friel, who helped launch the Brooklyn noise rock outfit Parts & Labor, crafts solo work by routing vintage synthesizers through guitar pedals and pairing them with gritty drum machines, yielding a jagged, abrasive strain of electronic music. Although the results can feel confrontational and thorny, they remain tuneful and vibrant, affirming existence amid its many contradictions and irritations. Earlier, during the mid-’90s, he contributed to the Western Massachusetts noise-punk group Squidlaunch; soon afterward he began assembling solo pieces in his Bed-Stuy basement and issued the self-released, trebly disc Broken Man Going to Work in 2001. The following year he and B.J. Warshaw formed Parts & Labor. Across the ensuing decade the band issued five albums plus assorted EPs and singles—among them titles on Jagjaguwar and Ace Fu, plus a split with Tyondai Braxton on Narnack Records—while logging extensive tours and earning notice in Pitchfork, The Guardian, and Q.
During his tenure with Parts & Labor, Friel continued to issue limited solo efforts, beginning with the 2004 Velocirecords release Sunburn and followed by the 2005 cassette Obsoleter on Night People, which later appeared on vinyl via Spooky Tree. Also in 2005 he and Warshaw established Cardboard Records, a label that documented their own group alongside associates such as Pterodactyl and Ecstatic Sunshine. Parts & Labor’s 2006 EP Escapers One, issued by Broklyn Beats, shifted away from their customary noise-rock attack toward the electronic palette already central to Friel’s solo recordings. His first widely distributed solo album, Ghost Town, surfaced on Important Records in 2008. In 2011 he collaborated on a 7-inch single with the experimental rhythmic-noise artist Mincemeat or Tenspeed, released by Ormolycka.
Once Parts & Labor concluded its run with a final performance in February 2012, Friel joined the Chicago imprint Thrill Jockey. That year he issued the Valedictorian/Exoskeleton EP, which incorporated remixes by Moss of Aura and Peaking Lights. His first proper album for the label, Total Folklore, arrived in 2013. Following the arrival of his son, he released the jubilant Life in 2015.
During his tenure with Parts & Labor, Friel continued to issue limited solo efforts, beginning with the 2004 Velocirecords release Sunburn and followed by the 2005 cassette Obsoleter on Night People, which later appeared on vinyl via Spooky Tree. Also in 2005 he and Warshaw established Cardboard Records, a label that documented their own group alongside associates such as Pterodactyl and Ecstatic Sunshine. Parts & Labor’s 2006 EP Escapers One, issued by Broklyn Beats, shifted away from their customary noise-rock attack toward the electronic palette already central to Friel’s solo recordings. His first widely distributed solo album, Ghost Town, surfaced on Important Records in 2008. In 2011 he collaborated on a 7-inch single with the experimental rhythmic-noise artist Mincemeat or Tenspeed, released by Ormolycka.
Once Parts & Labor concluded its run with a final performance in February 2012, Friel joined the Chicago imprint Thrill Jockey. That year he issued the Valedictorian/Exoskeleton EP, which incorporated remixes by Moss of Aura and Peaking Lights. His first proper album for the label, Total Folklore, arrived in 2013. Following the arrival of his son, he released the jubilant Life in 2015.
Albums
Singles
