Escort: Escort
Details
Genre: Disco, Funk, Nu-discoPros:
A non-stop party full of updated New York disco beats and electro whizzes; nostalgic, but righteously relevantCons:
The highly complex album finisher, "Karawane," is a bit of a challenge to digestNew York disco band shakes up the ethics of the old dance floor playbook with stunning results
New York disco band shakes up the ethics of the traditional dance floor playbook with stunning results
In the very twisted world of 21st century dance, where rockstar DJs are being teleported into the cosmos of pop-dom using their flashy laptops, bands like Escort seem like an anomaly. That’s because this cluster of musicians, a self-contained New York band, take great pride in authentically constructing a brand of modern disco that delights itself on manual labor. A seventeen-piece band, echoing the Eurodisco struts of Cerrone and the funky funk of Chic, Escort – with a sexy, flirty Adeline Michele on lead vocals – feels like a flashdance from yesterday on their super sleek self-titled album. But if you were to summon up a track list of Daft Punk, Scissor Sisters and LCD Soundsystem, the sweaty workouts of Escort would be a terrific fit, even if a whiff of nostalgia sweeps past your way. “Caméleon Chaneleon” feels like it’s been walking in the shadows of MJ’s “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’,” while “Cocaine Blues” proudly displays a set of guitar riffs and a chorus chant emulating People’s Choice’s “Do It Any Way You Wanna.” And even the lyrics of the bad-ass “Cocaine Blues” rings out a catchy piece of nostalgia referencing Studio 54 legends and New York’s wild counterculture (“A knife, a fork, a bottle and a fork/That’s the way we spell New York”).
The grooves are also nothing to quip about. There’s Dr. Buzzardly percussion heavy layouts (“A Sailboat in the Moonlight”), spunky electro swag (“All Through the Night”), ‘80’s-meets-future pop (“All That She Is”), and Donna Summer disco (“A Bright New Life”) all throughout the odyssey. But of all the killer tracks, “Starlight” is stunning beginning to end, packing in a live drum intro, some spacey synths and the hookiest KC & the Sunshine Band funk. “Love in Indigo,” with its splash of Italio-disco trance, is a close second. Producers Eugene Cho and Dan Balis have orchestrated a suite of uptempo wonders soaring with funky horns, Philly soul strings and funky melodies that would quickly remedy the soulless party. You can only imagine what the next record is going to sound like. If they keep this up, Christopher Nolan might be pressured to reboot Saturday Night Fever before we all catch the bug.
