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Sep 19, 2013 Issue #47 - September/October 2013 - MGMT By J. Pace

Stay aloof on the dance floor. Here’s a proper full-length from these Londoners after a slew of 12-inch singles, mini-albums, and more. Collaborator/remixer Stephen Morris (of Joy Division/New Order) has described them as “unsettling disco,” which is an apt summary—especially as they continue to strip their sound down to the rhythmic elements and brief spurts of odd, heavily affected vocals and other sounds. A little more disco and a touch less unsettling than those previous efforts that earned them “post-industrial” status. “Fall Back” could almost be a New Order B-side given its kick drum/snare sounds and staccato synth patterns. “Here” again pairs more coldly repetitive synth arpeggios with a skittering drum machine beat and live percussion, getting a little Balearic even, although cloaked in Nik Colk Void’s creepy, pitch-twisted vocal intonations (which are more reminiscent of also-collaborators like Throbbing Gristle than the pop/dance end of the spectrum). “Work Out” is disjointed electro with an 808 hi-hat fixation. “How You Say” keeps a fizzling, distorted synth pattern going (there is, you may have noted, always a synth pattern, taken through various iterations/filters/etc.), while Void repeats “how we play” and other choice phrases in that icy monotone,

assisted on texture by various delay effects, and all of it paired with a part human/part robot beat that builds and retracts. Perhaps it’s the quintessential tune here: simultaneously opaque and danceable, repelling and seductive. All those comparisons you see may be spot-on; it’s like a brash re-imagining of 20 Jazz Funk Greats for the modern era, house-music-aware but in denial of most of what’s happened since. (www.facebook.com/factoryfloor)

Author rating: 6/10