Friday, August 24th, 2012

Black Strobe – Boogie in Zero Gravity

You got America in my Europe…!


[Video][Website]
[6.00]

Anthony Easton: I like when guitars invade dance music. I also am fond of the vocals on this one, and the grind of the bass. It’s a solid bit of slightly retro edited flash, but it’s pleasurable. 
[7]

Alfred Soto: As machine-funk goes it gleams like 2007-era Maroon 5 but it’s cool, assured, and terrified of vulgarity (the guitar solo and synth wash evokes Steely Dan’s “FM”). I can imagine the children of Claus von Bülow dancing to it in 1980.  
[7]

Mallory O’Donnell: Once the best one-stop-shop for severe, stentorian electro, Black Strobe have since diversified quite nicely, going from rocked-out like a funny Vitalic (“I’m a Man”) to pure Detroit techno (“Demonstration Track”) to deep within the pulsating heart of a giallo soundtrack (“Back from Beyond”). “Boogie in Zero Gravity” finds them most definitely on the funny rather than dark end of the spectrum, reminding me handily of the once-terrific WhoMadeWho. Sadly, this would-be successor to “I’m a Man” will likely flounder, caught between an American audience that doesn’t realize it’s funny and a European one that doesn’t realize it’s funky.
[8]

Jonathan Bradley: “I’m a sinner, a drunkard, and I’m a country boy” would be a grand statement of intent if it didn’t sound so scripted; the kind of thing funk lotharios are supposed to say. The arrangement follows similar principles, with a groove that staggers under its own weight — disco without glide and boogie without buoyancy. The extraneousness of the guitar noodling doesn’t help matters either. 
[2]

Jonathan Bogart: That clean Les Paul solo in the middle of chintzy space disco is a small miracle, and I love it when generic signifiers collide like that, but elsewhere the Euro appropriation of American rock & roll “attitude” reminds me of the Hives — though they’re French not Swedish, and more electro than garage. It’s still just a collection of signifiers.
[6]

Katherine St Asaph: I can’t object too much to this Febreze funk. I object even less after they stop singing like they’ve gargled it. 
[6]

Brad Shoup: Almost too laid-back for its own good, although perhaps that’s what happens when you move the party into orbit. I actually enjoyed the Cave-aping “I’m a Man” (which sorta-gets namechecked here), the way it believed its own hype, and the Glitterbeat. This is surprisingly tasteful; it makes the DFA look like Alec R. Costandinos. The bass meets its minimum funk requirements, the synths hover like fog until a late, sparkly evaporation.
[5]

Josh Langhoff: This sounds like it’s a couple seconds away from turning into Electric Six, who I always rate a 7.
[7]

2 Responses to “Black Strobe – Boogie in Zero Gravity”

  1. This steals all its best ideas from, and is about 1/72 as good as, Chromeo.

  2. For a second, I thought Adobe had become sentient.