Clinton - Disco And The Halfway To Discontent (2000)

Former Cornershop sound experimentalists and lo-fi cheeseball aficionados Tjinder Singh and Ben Ayres return with a new band but a similar musical approach. The beats are a touch harder, and they mine early '80s hip-hop instead of early '60s jangle-pop for their material, although they're still entertaining the same impulses: using $50 keyboards and cheapo sequencers to combine a comforting old-school feel with a savvy, modern pop sensibility. They don't cast as wide a net here though, putting away their guitars and depending on a relatively monochromatic melodic palette, along with a warm but muted sense of breakbeat rhythm. On the surface, the record seems pretty empty-headed, especially compared to the latent political messages and consciousness-raising content of Cornershop. Look deeper, however, and the sunny melodies sound deliberately inappropriate, and just a little too tongue-in-cheek for straight interpretation. Singh and Ayres, while indulging their peppiest musical instincts, have a comment to make on disco's (and dance music in general) often vacuous core, holding up a mirror to the unabashed reliance on appearances and consequenceless frivolity. The shame and the success of the record can be found in how easily overlooked that observation ends up being amid the showers of funked-out pop that soak every song through to the bone. --Matthew Cooke