- Frank & Tony are Francis Harris and Anthony Collins, two DJs and producers who teamed up in 2011 to found Scissor & Thread. Since its formation, their label has provided a platform for Collins' steady stream of thumping club singles and Harris's increasingly introspective productions (including this year's elusive piano and trumpet-washed Minutes Of Sleep). It's also led to a string of collaborative EPs that pointed to a unique creative alchemy between the two. You Go Girl is their first full-length together, and it's a steady, disciplined house set, full of feeling but carefully tidied into moods appropriate for the chill-out room. Mixed with unrelenting attention to detail, it's a near-perfect cruise through an immersive, shared aesthetic.
Any one of these tunes could fit nicely into a long-form DJ set, and here they're sequenced in a way that mimics that experience, with lulls between tracks creating a natural ebb and flow. You Go Girl follows the steady release of three three-song EPs (titled, naturally, You, Go and Girl) and culls together some of their highlights, including the gorgeous "Bring The Sun," which transports the image of a melancholy nightclub singer to a smoky dance floor.
Harris and Collins are masters of shading, and the variations in mood here are so understated that it's easy to space out and suddenly find yourself at the LP's final moments. On the other hand, if you take the communion of fog machines and muffled kick drums, there's plenty of elevated expression here—the percussion shifts in "Villa Seurat," for instance, or the ambient hiss and minute textural changes that ground "Love Brut." Even minor moments, like the milky chords on "Resistance," have an earthy sweetness that recalls the tactile quality of mid-'00s micro house.
One track from the EPs is notably missing from this album: "Companion," Harris and Collins' languid collaboration with like-minded house artist Terre Thaemlitz. Thaemlitz's classic album Midtown 120 Blues received a loving reissue earlier this year, and You Go Girl may be another example of a recent nostalgia for deep house. But more importantly, it's a work of devoted craftsmanship from a pair of artists who sound more focused than ever.
Tracklist01. After Days
02. Faded (Dub)
03. Bring The Sun feat. Gry
04. Villa Seurat
05. Resistance feat. Jason Poranski
06. Call Me Rain
07. Only By Moving
08. Love Brut
09. Novella