- Don't let the tongue-in-cheek name DJ Dodger Stadium fool you: there isn't anything ironic about the music on Jerome LOL and Samo Sound Boy's first album together. Following the catch-all club music of Stadium Status—the 2011 EP that inaugurated their Body High label—the LA scenesters have distilled their music down to a techno-minded take on gospel house. Inspired by John Fante's Ask The Dust, a novel set in depression-era Los Angeles, Friend Of Mine puts Jerome's undeniable gift for vocal hooks to work with Samo's booming warehouse vibes for a record that feels huge, universal and easy to love.
Aside from the casually cinematic intro ("The Bottom Is As Low As You Can Go"), Friend Of Mine consists of house tracks structured like pop songs, generally built around a simple vocal sample or phrase. The duo wring a lot of variety out of that recipe: "One Who Lost" is a brisk Chicago pastiche with jumpy drum programming, "Memory Lane" layers jazzy horn samples for a classic-sounding lounge tune, while "By Your Side" touches on jacking vocal house. Thanks to their knack for layering vocals, the songs never get stale. The duo's diverse background leads to some inventive combinations, like pairing Plastikman-style drum rolls with oldies radio vocals on the defiant march of "Love Songs."
Anyone who follows Body High and Samo Sound Boy will know they have an affinity for the steelier end of techno, and they deliver some of that on Friend Of Mine as well. "The Dust" makes the gospel leanings ugly and computerized, amidst a wet mass of synths pushed forward by heavy percussion. "Trouble" is more atmospheric, packing growling basslines and spacey synths into a windswept Detroit daydream.
These moments, and the bottomless feel of ominous interlude "Sit Down Satan," have an epic scale to them that fits the "stadium" part of the duo's name. The rest of the time, though, there's something charming and down-home about Friend Of Mine, from its title to the barbershop quartet on the title track. A record for techno heads as much as dance music dilettantes, Friend Of Mine explores the basic emotions of pop—love, loneliness, regret and friendship—through the prism of dance music, and it comes from two artists who know a lot about the best of both those worlds.
Tracklist01. The Bottom Is As Low As You Can Go
02. Love Songs
03. One Who Lost
04. Memory Lane
05. Never Win
06.Trouble
07. By Your Side
08. Sit Down, Satan
09. The Dust
10. Friend Of Mine