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Who shaped them

LCD Soundsystem

LCD Soundsystem

Since 2002 · United States

LCD Soundsystem began as largely a solo studio project for James Murphy, who co-founded the New York label DFA Records in the early 2000s and released the wry, list-driven single "Losing My Edge" in 2002 before ever putting together a full band. Their story

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Who they shaped

Nobody on the map lists them as an influence yet.

Behind them, left to right: Kraftwerk, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, The Velvet Underground, David Bowie, The Fall, The Birthday Party, The Smiths, Talking Heads.

The bigger the face, the stronger the proof: they said it themselvesreporteda critic, or widely accepted

Sound of Silver cover

Start here

Sound of Silver (2007)

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Sound of Silver is LCD Soundsystem's most emotionally direct record, pairing James Murphy's dry, list-making wit with songs that are unexpectedly moving underneath the dance-rock chassis. "All My Friends" builds a single piano riff into an eight-minute meditation on aging and friendship, gaining urgency without ever changing its basic pattern. "North American Scum" and "Someone Great" show the album's range, one a sardonic, groove-heavy jab, the other a quietly devastating song about loss disguised as a synth-pop track. It's the record that convinced listeners who'd dismissed dance-punk as a passing revival that Murphy was working toward something more lasting.

Sleeve notes

LCD Soundsystem

Sound of Silver · 2007

LCD Soundsystem began as largely a solo studio project for James Murphy, who co-founded the New York label DFA Records in the early 2000s and released the wry, list-driven single "Losing My Edge" in 2002 before ever putting together a full band. The song's anxious, funny take on record-collector one-upmanship set the tone for much of what followed: dance music made by someone who'd spent more time thinking about music history than about the dancefloor itself.

Sound of Silver (2007), the project's second album and its critical high point, balanced that self-aware wit against genuinely moving songwriting, especially on the extended, elegiac "All My Friends." Murphy disbanded LCD Soundsystem after a widely covered farewell concert at Madison Square Garden in 2011, only to reconvene the group a few years later for American Dream (2017) and further records since. The band's sound — post-punk rhythm sections filtered through disco and house structures — became one of the most widely cited templates for 2000s dance-punk.

Since 2002 · United States

Played at

Lower East Side

New York · 1999–2005

On the bill

Here as James Murphy before it was a band: DFA's producer and Plant Bar DJ, who made "Losing My Edge" in the Plantain studio. LCD Soundsystem played its first show as a band in London, in November 2002.

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