Teklife's DJ Earl Working With Oneohtrix Point Never on New Album

Photo via Instagram

DJ Earl, the Chicago artist involved with the late DJ Rashad's footwork crew Teklife, is preparing to release a new record crafted alongside Daniel Lopatin—also known as Oneohtrix Point Never—according to a new interview with Wine and Bowties. "We put together the entire album together actually," Earl said, "He was very hands on." Specifically, Lopatin contributed mixing, arrangement, and keyboards to the project, according to a representative.

Earl, who frequently collaborated with DJ Rashad, told Wine and Bowties that he plans to release the record on the just-launched Teklife label. He also revealed that Lopatin wanted him to record for his own label, Software. "I met [Daniel] in Vancouver, at the New Forms Festival," Earl recalled. "He played this crazy next-level set, and then later on caught my set and reached out, and told me, 'I want you to come to Software.'”

Elsewhere in the interview, Earl talked about the first time he met DJ Rashad as a teenager, and offered a glimpse at the goings-on at Teklife: "Right now, we’re all just in the lab trying to make a bunch of next level footwork, push the music, some crazy visual shows, getting dancers more involved," he said.

Yesterday, the label announced their inaugural release Afterlife, a compilation of fourteen previously-unheard collaborations between DJ Rashad and other musicians from the footwork crew.

Read our feature "From Teklife to the Next Life." Also, check out "Right Brain," our feature on Oneohtrix Point Never, and listen to our podcast conversation with him.

Watch a collaboration between Lopatin and artist Nate Boyce, filmed inside the Dome at PS1 MoMA, via Pitchfork.tv:

Watch Teklife in Monterrey, a Pitchfork.tv documentary about Teklife, DJ Rashad, and DJ Spinn:

via Zoe Camp