CD Reviews

Simian Mobile Disco

Attack Decay Sustain Release | Interscope

By ROQUE STREW | September 12, 2007

3.0 Stars

After spinning and remixing everyone else’s tracks, James Ford and Jas Shaw, a/k/a Simian Mobile Disco, are finally debuting their own. Short on irony, testosterone, and patience, Attack Decay Sustain Release hurtles from genre to genre, in three-minute bursts of exuberant pastiche. Ford and Shaw have studied the post-1980 dance diaspora from electro to house to rap, and the result is melting-pot pop: the keyboard shimmer of Orbital (“Wooden” and “Scott”), the droopy Depeche-isms (“I Believe” and “Love”), Daft Punk’s robo-croon (“I Got This Down”), and a stark, sweaty, 21st-century “Pump Up the Jam” calling itself “It’s the Beat.” It’s all playful fun, almost too much so. Nevertheless, after Char Johnson lays down her chorus on “Hustler,” an ode to record-store kleptos set to the sinister skitter of retro synths, you’ll be mouthing the sassy nonsense yourself. You won’t care that it’s gleefully empty, shamelessly primitive, pre-rational, lo-fi. You’ll be too busy dancing.

Simian Mobile Disco + Girl Talk + Dan Deacon | Avalon, 15 Lansdowne St, Boston | September 14 | 617.931.2000

Related: Slideshow: Simian Mobile Disco, Nu Rave extravaganza, Winning losers, More

Topics: CD Reviews , Daft Punk, Dan Deacon, Simian Mobile Disco, More

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