DVA Damas

As one of the first acts signed by Karl O'Connor's offshoot label <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Downwards+America%22">Downwards America</a>, DVA Damas are California duo Taylor Burch and Joe Cocherell. Starting out as Burch's solo project in 2009, she soon began working with Cocherell shortly thereafter and a fruitful creative partnership was born. The pair's exhilarating and raw sound of minimal post-punk electronics mixed with jaded Spaghetti Western twangs caught the attention of Juan Mendez (<a href="spotify:artist:1QwvlTkLsKbaB3JT1AV245">Silent Servant</a>) -- a long term co-conspirator of O'Connor in the form of the pair's <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Sandwell+District%22">Sandwell District</a> project -- who was at their first live show in 2009 and offered to put out their first release on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Downwards%22">Downwards</a> as part of the label's DO series, which served to introduce new artists such as themselves, <a href="spotify:artist:3qFOpjNiYRuQNVl564TGgO">Tropic of Cancer</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:0BzJFLqchxKNQyEwswwQ40">the KVB</a>, to a wider audience. Their debut self-titled single was released on O'Connor's label in 2010 and featured three tracks. The following year, they released a split 7" with the band <a href="spotify:artist:07IHJnvspb3f3sT79tg3w8">Le Face</a> on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Psychic+Handshake+Recordings%22">Psychic Handshake Recordings</a>. In 2013, their debut album, Nightshade, was released on the newly created <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Downwards+America%22">Downwards America</a> -- whose operations would be overseen by Mendez -- and they toured America and Europe. ~ Aneet Nijjar, Rovi