Desire

One of the blessings of recording music through an independent label, apparently, is the intimate camaraderie and collaboration between band members. This is certainly true of Italians Do It Better, perhaps my favourite new dance label. Producer Jimmy Jewel performs not only with Chromatics and Glass Candy, both of whom have released work through the label, but also with Desire, a new project he formed in Montreal with vocalist Megan Louise.

Desire's debut album, II, released 23 June, echoes the aesthetics of Jewel's other projects, offering understated, mysterious female vocals atop soft, pulsing rhythms and glimmering instrumentation. As if eschewing the discordant, broken-record barrage of more hardcore styles of dance music as well as the abstract, remote peak-and-trough wave structure of progressive trance, Desire embrace a classic verse-chorus song structure, strong melody, and alternating hooks; through this technique, they manage to avoid the inane simplicity of cheap, dust-bin electro or American Top 40 pop as well as the boring, burdensome complexity of more conceptual works in experimental music. A prime example of Desire's ear-catching motifs is the chorus to the infectious Miroir Miroir, a glowing masterwork of nu-disco which carries a simple refrain by relying cleverly on lines from a widely known folktale recorded by the Brothers Grimm: "Mirror, mirror on the wall / Who's the fairest of them all?" The coy lyrics combined with eerie, numinous background strings offer a dark yet playful commentary on vanity. A similarly tongue-in-cheek effect is achieved in If I Can't Hold You, which sets a frolicking bass drum to a melancholy requiem for a dead lover.

II's pop sensibility offers a refuge from more wearisome, "progressive" styles of music--a collection of catchy and accessible yet moody and sophisticated songs which are equally delightful to sing to, dance to, and ruminate on. It is a pleasure to discover yet another band (and I expect even more from Italians Do It Better) who reject the artificial division between traditional, poetic song structure and dance-friendliness, recognizing that the combination of these two only doubles the pleasure. The highest art, in Aristotle's view, combines a comical overtone with tragedy lurking at the core. In this way, Desire craft songs which show human warmth, thoughtfulness, and physicality while preserving the eccentricity and spontaneity that define dance music.



Image ©2009 Italians Do It Better

Glass Candy

Every so often I will give a general summary of a band I have been following and with whom I have fallen in love. The first such overview is of Glass Candy, a quirky, chameleon-like project formed in Portland, Oregon, in 1996 and consisting of Vancouver, Washington singer Ida No and producer Jimmy Jewel, of Austin. I first discovered the duo in 2008 during my perennial search for well-written, more song-like alternatives to the inane repetitiveness and abrasiveness of late '90s house and trance and their twenty-first century derivatives, which still seemed to dominate the mainstream dance music scene. Their work is available through Italians Do It Better, a fine New Jersey label which releases records by other exciting, Italo-disco-influenced outfits such as Chromatics, Desire, Farah, Mirage, and Professor Genius.

While the band's earlier releases feature such rough-hewn stompers as Excite Bike, their later endeavours include such sumptuous romps as Poison or Remedy and Miss Broadway, a splendid cover of the '70s disco hit by Belle Epoque. Rather like Blondie, Dead Or Alive, and other new wave artists who probably constitute their chief source of inspiration, Glass Candy have evolved from their raw, dissonant (yet somehow concentrated and alarming) punk roots into a glamorous, alluring carnival of melodic disco. At times the band even venture into hip hop territory, as with the irresistibly funky Geto Boys, while they show off their skill in penning ethereal Italo-disco anthems with the haunting, otherworldly gambol of Life After Sundown. Meanwhile, No's soft but whispery vocals careen seductively (if at times off-key) over the rich, scintillating textures of Jimmy Jewel's gorgeous orchestration. To double the pleasure, simply see the band in concert and marvel at No's writhing, serpentine dance moves juxtaposed with Jewel's dynamic assault on the keyboards.

It is refreshing finally to discover music which simultaneously boasts clever lyrics, elegant arrangements, and dance-friendly spiritedness--classically structured, well-written dance songs which do not require drug use to be enjoyed. Both Glass Candy's earlier dance-punk and later disco incarnations please the listener since both boast appealing chords, arpeggios, notes, and so on (while remaining bizarre and twisted), but it is a pleasure to follow an artist growing out of its chaotic roots into a refined and luxurious creature.



Image ©2009 John Londono

Review of 'No. 2'

Swedish band JJ released their first full-length album, No. 2, on the Swedish record label Sincerely Yours in July, 2009. The moment I first played the album, I was smitten. With the recent incorporation of dance-oriented sounds into indie music, which has broken down the unnecessary and artificial barrier between dance and rock music, new bands have poured forth a cornucopia of works which reflect the aesthetics of disco, electro, and synthpop. I will not expound on how this trend may already be five or so years old, because I believe good music is perennial and that it should be an ongoing experiment.

No. 2 shows off a set of sweet songs with soft cadences characterising a sound termed by some as Balearic disco (as distinct from late 1980s and early 1990s Balearic beat), which, at least in its twenty-first century manifestation, serves as a sort of traditionally-written after-thought to the harder, more monotonous sounds heard in the clubs of Spain's Las Islas Baleares, specifically the famous party resort of Ibiza. Most of the songs feature unassuming vocals which coast gently and carefully from key to key without vulgar vocal acrobatics, while a loping four-to-the-floor beat trips lightly in the background, interrupted occasionally by an invasive yet playful conga drum. Meanwhile, eerie violins create a fantastic, ethereal backdrop. The final effect is a bouncey, luxurious romp through the subtropics reminiscent of other Balearic and Cosmic disco acts such as Norway's Hans-Peter Lindstrøm or Prins Thomas.

Listening to No. 2, one is reminded of Culture Club's Do You Really Want To Hurt Me or Erasure's Blue Savannah; Masterplan even sounds uncannily like a mid-tempo track from the latter band's 1997 album, Cowboy. The wash of plaintive, distant vocals, light guitars, shrill strings, and soft drums create a refreshingly unpretentious, care-free atmosphere which anybody can enjoy over a mint julip on a humid summer day, or even over a double Long Island iced-tea at one of the more daring discotheques of the night.

Image ©2009 Sincerely Yours