DFA Records is an independent record label and production team, launched in September 2001 by Mo' Wax co-founder Tim Goldsworthy, musician James Murphy, and manager Jonathan Galkin. The label has an exclusive distribution deal with major record label EMI.

James Murphy and Tim Goldsworthy met while working in New York on the David Holmes album Let's Get Killed. After the recording was completed, Goldsworthy stayed in New York, and the two began to throw parties in the Lower East Side. They wished to start a record label but it was only when they met Jonathan Galkin and he quit his event-producting job to run the label that it took off.

DFA Records began on a series of 12" single vinyl releases starting with The Rapture's "House of Jealous Lovers" and The Juan Maclean's "By The Time I Get To Venus". "House of Jealous Lovers" went on to sell 7500 copies. Many of the early releases of DFA's catalog were released in Europe through Trevor Jackson's Output Recordings. After completing production on The Rapture's debut full-length album Echoes, DFA began to shop around the album. Although The Rapture eventually signed to Universal Music Group, the DFA label secured a deal with EMI for distribution of its acts outside the United States, along with several distributors within the U.S.

The label has grown steadily since, producing full-length albums for its ever-growing roster of artists, as well as releasing a selection of singles and compilations on their label. Notable releases include The Rapture's EP "House of Jealous Lovers", the twice-Grammy nominated debut of James Murphy's band LCD Soundsystem and its follow up Sound of Silver. DFA-label compilation albums include The DFA Remixes - Chapter Two from October 2006, a companion pieces to the earlier The DFA Remixes - Chapter One. Signed artists represented on such albums include The Rapture, The Juan Maclean, Black Dice, Shit Robot, Delia Gonzalez & Gavin Russom, J.O.Y., Pixeltan, Black Leotard Front, Hot Chip, and LCD Soundsystem.

As a production team, the DFA have produced and remixed artists including Radio 4, Le Tigre, N.E.R.D., Soulwax, Blues Explosion, Nine Inch Nails, Automato, Gorillaz, UNKLE, and The Chemical Brothers. They even spent an unsuccessful afternoon attempting to write a song with Britney Spears.

DFA could be seen as the center of the dance-punk genre. As well as Murphy's LCD Soundsystem the label is currently home to The Juan Maclean, Hot Chip (North America only), Shit Robot, Delia Gonzalez & Gavin Russom, Prinzhorn Dance School, Booji Boy High, Shocking Pinks, Holy Ghost!, Hercules and Love Affair, Still Going, Syclops and YACHT. They are also jointly releasing music by with fellow New York City based label Rong Music, by artists such as Free Blood and Woolfy. The label has also reissued the first album by Athens, Georgia based new wave band Pylon, the first time it has been available on CD.

The Dance-punk genre is somewhat of a resurgence of New York's underground scene circa 1978-1982. The influence of bands like Talking Heads, Liquid Liquid, ESG, and Blondie can be heard throughout the DFA catalog. Rather than retread, however, the DFA have taken the live dance music of the time and infused the techniques and themes with a modern aesthetic--alternately faster, heavier, dubbier, noisier, and generally more intense than their influences. The DFA's trend towards live musicians and improvisation in dance music has spread in recent years to artists like Tussle, !!!, Out Hud, Moving Units and Tom Vek, and many established House producers have also begun to follow suit.

Artists include: Black Dice, Delia Gonzalez & Gavin Russom, Free Blood, Hercules & Love Affair, Holy Ghost!, Hot Chip, The Juan Maclean, LCD Soundsystem, Pixeltan, Prinzhorn Dance School, Pylon, Shit Robot, Shocking Pinks, Still Going, Syclops, YACHT