That 16th Note High Hat = Crack

Discovery - LP

My street cred came into question at a party recently when I had to admit I hadn't heard of Discovery. Granted, I don't normally fucks with electronica-dance-type stuff, and I really don't know much about the genre, the major players, benchmarks, etc, but I figured there was no time like the present to tackle something new, unfamiliar, and endorsed by designer-drug enthusiasts around the globe. On their myspace page, the duo (composed half-and-half of Vampire Weekend and Ra Ra Riot members) describe themselves as "experimental neo-soul," which I think is exactly accurate. Not that I could ever really disagree with the description a band assigns to itself (hell, Liam Gallagher had me convinced that Oasis really were the "best band in the world"). I was happy as well to see that they listed "that sixteenth-note high hat that you're hearing in da night" as one of their major influences, finally some credit where credit is due. And plus -- Dipset, anyone? Hot damn! So I clicked "play."

The sounds are a lovely pastiche of both all that is cool and all that is good about contemporary dance party music. Those who create, broadcast, and listen to party music walk a precarious line: you need something that is new, fresh, and, in the case of hosting the party, ideally that only about a fifth to a quarter of the partygoers have heard before -- but you need something that still has that feel-good groove and those pleasure-pushing tricks. Discovery seems to fit the bill. Most people have heard of Vampire Weekend, some people have heard of Ra Ra Riot -- I'm willing to bet that a smaller fraction of the intersection of those two populations has heard of these guys. And it's certainly got that synth-pump crack that you hate to crave. Soft, honest vocals take us on a tour of the youths' modern dance-floor world, backed by reprocessed snippets of popular culture (i.e., those beats that are hot on the street) arranged into synchronous, soul-pleasing rhythms. "My bed's too big for just me" plead the multitracked vocals, reminding us how tough it is to be young, single, and hip as hell. I'm lead to believe this is all a satirical experiment, an embellished joke on all the hot shit the kids are listening to these days, exaggerated to the point of being entertaining and satisfying.

By the end of the album, it's clear they seem to have run out of sounds, but the songs still have that fruity lusciousness to them. It's good in the David Bowie sense -- kind of like a fun-house mirror, it's an interpretive and exaggerated expression of what's around it. It's a creative summary of the industry-leading trends. I don't think it will last, but it will be fun while it does. It'll be bumping at my next party. Consider yourself in the knowing fifth.