“Run”
by Gnarls Barkley
(Downtown)
The more I listen to “Run,” the sooner the song seems finished. Not
the record, the song—by the 1:50 mark, the verses and
choruses’ work is done, leaving the last minute to repetition. I love
repetition, as the records below demonstrate, so this isn’t a problem.
“Run” is more frenetic than the singles from St. Elsewhere, but
it’s obvious who made it the second the song begins—the duo have
their formula down, but they’re still playing with it instead of
letting it fence them in. What’s interesting is how close their
new-wave nods are to prefunk ’60s show R&B; on an Apollo-bound
revue, “Run” would amp things up three-quarters of the way in, then the
house band would cool things out with an instrumental before the
headliner came on. The Barkley backlash is inevitable, of course, but
who even pays attention anymore? (Besides the 20-dozen people deeply
invested in the career of Vampire Weekend, I mean.)
“Cable Dazed”
by Invisible Conga People
(Italians Do It Better)
I haven’t been much of a fan of Italians Do It Better, the New York
label with a heavily Portland, Oregon, roster specializing in neo-Italo
disco—the cheap, glassy-synthesizer, early-’80s stuff that’s been
coming back, to some degree or other, more or less continuously since
the ’00s began. But this track by a New York duo with the best group
name in ages has me hitting repeat a lot, maybe because it isn’t very
Italo at all. Instead, Justin Simon and Eric Tsai build a gorgeously
slow-moving edifice, synthesizers and guitars glancing off one another
over steady-pumping bass—both static and ripe. (There are words
somewhere, too, but who cares?) Imagine the throbbing psychedelia of
Brightback Morning Light tied to a paddlewheel beat and aiming to
replicate the beautiful pulsing hum of idealized machinery rather than
the drifting of your stoned mind.
“Annihilating Rhythm”
by Sascha Dive
(Drumpoet Community)
Honestly, there’s not much to this new 12-inch beyond enormous
low-end drops thuggishly punctuating a skip-a-de-doo-dah bass bump,
snapping snare, thick high hat, a sustained string tone, and occasional
pitched-down vocals (recently one of dance music’s most oddly prevalent
motifs). Yet the track is formally perfect—it bubbles, surges,
and never seems to stop moving forward even though it’s essentially
doing the exact same thing over and over again. Annihilating, not
quite; insinuating is more like it—but in the right context, it’s
still pretty deadly. 