Not one you usually see here at Not Lame, no doubt...but there`s a reason. So much has been said about disco-punk`s King Midas, New York musician/producer James Murphy, that it`s kind of hard to believe that we`ve had to wait until 2005 for the debut album from his dancefloor project, LCD Soundsystem. LCD`s classic triumvirate of early singles--"Losing My Edge," "Give It Up," and "Yeah"--joined the dots between punk-rock, disco, and funk in a way that hadn`t been seen since the New York downtown scene of the early `80s, but these are bravely relegated to a bonus disc in favor of a suite of new material that reworks the band`s influences in new, often explicit ways: take "Movement," for instance--a homage to the Fall that finds Murphy barking "It`s a fat guy/ In a T-shirt/ Doing all the singing!" over punchy analog synths, or the quietly majestic "Great Release," a doff of the cap to Brian Eno circa Taking Tiger Mountain. For all his encyclopedic musical knowledge, however, it`s one of Murphy`s strengths that he seldom seems uptight about the practice of music-making: it`s how he can get away with penning a gonzo disco-punk number and naming it something as fantastically flippant as "Daft Punk Is Playing at My House"--and more importantly, it`s why LCD Soundsystem succeeds as a splendid dance record as well as a smart intellectual exercise. "4 stars... a music-nerd version of Animal House set in 2005 is ever made, "Daft Punk Is Playing at My House" - the boisterous opener of LCD Soundsystem - would make an ideal theme song for the fraternity on which it is based. The self-conscious, awkward music obsessives pledging into this fraternity would have to pass a complex trivia test, own a compulsory list of records, and, as a hazing ritual, ask to dance with someone in public. If LCD Soundsystem`s James Murphy were the least bit open to the concept, he could be the fraternity`s advisor. Judging from a handful of singles and this album, he`d be more than qualified. .."On Repeat" happily replicates the scratches and jabs of guitar heard from A Certain Ratio, PiL, and Gang of Four, but its mechanical pulse and curveball synth effects couldn`t be any more distanced from those three groups. Nothing here exceeds the brilliance of "Beat Connection" or "Yeah." Like just about everybody else these days, Murphy`s more skilled at creating isolated tracks than making full-lengths, even though this particular full-length has few weak spots and unfolds smoothly as you listen to it from beginning to end. The bonus disc, containing all the stray single tracks, adds a great deal of value. "-AMG.
 Daft Punk Is Playing At My House - mp3
Tribulations - mp3
Never As Tired As When I`m Waking Up - mp3 |
