- France's Dirty Sound System expands its D-I-R-T-Y label roster with a 12-inch from Lisbon newbies Photonz, who deliver some forward-thinking, danceable electro but are upstaged by a rowdy remix from in-house duo Discodeine. Last year D-I-R-T-Y made a quick and substantial mark with a string of boldly eclectic disco edits by Pilooski that ranged from Amon Duul to Frankie Valli—whose deep-soul number "Beggin," once re-spliced for maximum sweat, became an unlikely smash hit. This was followed up by Discodeine's Texas Gladiators EP, an innovative chunk of stripped, sizzling tech-disco. The addition of Photonz to this party seems wholly apt: their work maintains a tricky balance between a strong sense of style and the wide-eyed intuition that its crew well-reputed for.
'Trembler' is powered by avant Metal Machine-style guitar abrasion: stabs of flatliner-feedback jut into the mix and then dogfight with some seriously inebriated acid bass. It's full of wobbly detours and swerves which make it sound less it was designed by a computer and more like a live take from an extended robot jam session. But the wail never really takes virtuoso flight: it hovers and ping-pongs, and once it shimmers back into the void, the drums aren't quite sure how to deal with it, opting finally to peter out in some noncommittal dub sputter. The whole track is a sort of club-conscious mirror image of productions by lo-fi indie electronic groups like Fuck Buttons and Invisible Conga People who dabble in noisy techno mutations.
On the flip, the Discodeine mix seems less like a recontextualization than simply a more polished version of the original—they've harnessed the original's wild electrical change and used it to power the pistons of a hypnotic disco machine. Instead of wilding out, the now-tamed fuzzy sonics evoke the static electricity globes used in science class. Then a wordless, joyful Beach Boys-style group vocal, the kind that Discodeine has used to great effect on earlier tracks like 'Ring Modulation,' shows up to clear the space like air after a spring rain. On the whole there's a lot to read in the titles—'Trembler' is for sure a wobbly tightrope act, and the Discodeine mix indeed both narcotizes and gets it ready for the floor. The pair works best as a two-part suite, from an almost jammed-out noise solo into a wired-tight club stormer.
TracklistA Trembler
B Trembler (Discodeine Mix)