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February 03, 2006
take one look at insolubility
Disco Inferno - Second Language
Just wanted to mention before delving into Disco Inferno, that Cutest Puppy in the World (whose songs are like Calder mobiles, made of wire, string, and dense, sweet-smelling wood) just released their new album "Finfolk" on Sockets. You can check out some songs here, and then stroll over here to buy the album ($7!).
There's no way to talk about this song without resorting to hydrodynamics, because 'Second Language' primarily cascades- it flows, majestically, gracefully, and (at the end) violently. The movement of this song, through light, effervescent notes of guitars and samples, retains a kind of fixed pace and force throughout (in the same way that the energy of a wave is constant as it passes through different portions and different depths of the ocean) but is expressed in various ways as the song progresses: there's the little eddies and whirlpools of the intro, the splashes of handclaps, the strong tug of the bass, and at the end a kind of twisting, primal crosscurrent.
Ian Crause sings, near the climax of the song, "we tried to talk to each other/but the words that came out of our mouths/were carried away on the wind/we turned them inside out", which I love- I'm personally a sucker for anything that assigns physicality to spoken words (see especially: Ben Marcus' "Notable American Women")- but that's not even the best part, as in the next line, Crause talks about trying to communicate with his eyes, how the moment dissolves into one physical gesture, "and we just smiled"- and what follows reinforces that ecstatic transition from the verbal to non-verbal; a gorgeous, torqued guitar solo (it is so strong and so joyful that it almost overshadows the rest of the song). This song either approaches perfection, or is perfect and I just can't tell.
Disco Inferno kind of started off as very-skilled Joy Division imitators (listen to their album "In Debt", which is astounding in its own way), but then started to explore territory that was more along the lines of say, Bark Psychosis or the Young Gods (coincidentally, all bands that I was introduced to by my old roommate's radio show/record collection)- using samplers in (what were then) sort of unprecedented ways. In the years leading up to and following the release of their second album, "DI Go Pop", the band released some unquestionably classic EPs, which is where 'Second Language' comes from (it's the title track of one of the EPs). Long story short though, the band never really achieved any kind of commercial success, they grew more and more frustrated and finally just broke up. I think all the band members still make music (Crause does, I know), but nothing that quite measures up to what DI produced (the Avalanches are probably the closest to exploring the same kind of territory that the band did).
I know you can still buy the band's last two albums (the aforementioned "D.I. Go Pop" and the later "Technicolour") at Insound, but I don't think the EPs have been reissued or anything recently. If you like 'Second Language', email me (address is on the right, up top, small print) and I'll set you up with the remaining songs of the five EPs (only thanks to Ned R. at ILM do I have a copy).
Posted by Kevin at February 3, 2006 10:15 AM