Simian Mobile Disco's Debut Album
Attack Decay Sustain Release: Dance party analog fun
Sep 1, 2007 Matthew McMain Martin
Simian Mobile Disco play unabashed pop music on their debut Attack Decay Sustain Release. Pop music is no longer an insult, and it’s no longer heresy to serious musicians. Anymore, pop music is closer to mandate, having swung entirely from Inconsiderable to Guilty Pleasure to Considerable to now Necessary. That's right: pop music is seeing its best reaction in years, with “““real””” artists across the board giving in to its bubble-gum glee.
Simian, Before the Mobile Disco
The now defunct Simian was a perfectly respectable band who made two criminally overlooked and startlingly different albums. The first, Chemistry Is What We Are, is a Beach Boys-vs.-Aphex Twin collection of eerie chamber rock hymns, its melodies often carried by timeworn accordion. The liner sleeves portray the band as irremediable nostalgists, filling their studio with the bizarre instruments of yesteryear.
On their second album We Are Your Friends, they moved from the country to the city, making an album of hook-heavy dance rock, electro-punk, and club R ’n’ B. When playing this material live, you could see an antsy band, a band whose members exchanged instruments often, switching functions and alternating roles.Their sound was much more percussive and straightforward, much more listener-friendly, closer to the pop sound their drummer and bassist would eventually master.
Simian Mobile Disco
During the making of the second album, James Ford and James Shaw DJed independently as Simian Mobile Disco, making their own mixtapes that featured Ol’ Dirty Bastard next to Paul McCartney next to Tom Zé next to unknown German new wavers. When Simian split in 2005, the two James took to the clubs, amassing a juggernaut collection of buzzing, quaking, bleeping mix sets and remixes. Ford said he preferred the dance clubs anyway, where people actually reacted to their music, instead of standing with their arms crossed considering it (a sentiment echoed on their remix of The Rapture's “Whoo—Alright! Yeah…Uh Huh”).
Two years and about 15 stellar remixes later (not to forget Justice's slamming remix of their song "We Are Your Friends)," they’ve released their solo album Attack Decay Sustain Release, While solo albums from esteemed remixers can be stymieing things, Simian Mobile Disco handle their debut well by making it nothing like their remixes. Instead, they make it a pop album.
Attack Decay Sustain Release
Attack Decay Sustain Release's songs are all kept around three-and-a-half minutes: guest stars (including The Go! Team’s Ninja and former Simian lead singer Simon Lord) arrive, spout perfectly inane hooks, are overtaken by tidal waves of flayed analog synth, then promptly leave. It’s such intelligent stupidity—one can imagine Ford and Shaw encouraging their guests to get drunk and just wing it, whatever they freestyle on the moment is perfect (what else can account for “I got this down, right? / I got this style tight!” or “I’m a hust-a-la, baby / That’s what my daddy’s made me”?). When they sample, they sample from the playground; the hook from “Hotdog” goes “Let’s get the rhythm of the hands / Let’s get the rhythm of the feet / Put ’em all together and what do you get? Ding dong; hot dog!”
Ford and Shaw want their fans to let loose on the dancefloor like recess, having fun in the name of endorphin release only. It’s all entirely deliberate—two accomplished producers maintaining a complex simplicity at all times, demanding those righteous arms uncross and skeptical heads bob. Simian Mobile Disco could experiment with their sound till Doomsday, making it “worthier,” but why bother being difficult when it’s so much more fun to just lobotomize yourself?
Attack Decay Sustain Release
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