Review: Japandroids - Celebration Rock 
PMA Guide to Sasquatch! 2012 
The xx: Hear 5 New Songs! 
Download: 8-Bit Versions of Radiohead's Kid A and OK Computer 
Review: El-P - Cancer For Cure 
Click on the turntable on the left to listen to a continuous stream of music featured on Pretty Much Amazing - updated every day. For more, you can check out the Best Songs of 2012.
Simian Mobile Disco
Temporary Pleasure
Witchita
out September 1st
54/100
[Rating Scale]
[rating:54/100]
Simian Mobile Disco offer up their sophomore studio album with an array of of color, texture and sound. Temporary Pleasure is a veritable smorgasbord. Just as stylized and hook-heavy as you please, with cameos galore. Known for working with artists the likes of the Arctic Monkeys, Klaxons and Peaches, James Ford bolsters his production skills to ‘staggering’ heights here.
At first you’re all geared up for some sort of explosion. There’s this infinitesimal build-up that keeps going until you’re squirming in your seat, ready for the pay-off. Remember LCD Soundsystem’s “Get Innocuous”? There’s this incredible lead into such an luxuriant crescendo of disco dance rock that it literally explodes into first rate club boogie (that word’s disagreeable silliness aside, it means what it means) that has you moving non-stop in appreciation of it’s utter danceability. And Temporary Pleasures’ opening track “Cream Team” deceptively primes you to anticipate the equal possibility for such an occurrence. So you’re ready to be up out of your damn seat.
[audio=http://pmatunes.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/simian-mobile-disco-01-cream-dream.mp3,Simian Mobile Disco - Cream Dream]
What it plays into is … interesting. It’s like a falsetto boys group harmonizing in a diner while somebody tries to drown them out with the soundtrack to Tron blasting out of a boombox. A sort of calm confusion before the storm. Not a tsunami of electronica, but rather a small hurricane that rolls through, leaves a bit of an impression, but ultimately fails in rearranging and elevating your take on SMD’s brand of dance music.
But false starts aside, Temporary Pleasures turns out to be sort of a mix-bag of tricks with hidden prizes. James Ford and Jas Shaw (producers, mix-masters, brains of the operation) utilize their connections to splatter guest vocals all over the canvas, with the result being an array of colorful patterns and shapes that don’t necessarily fit together as a whole, aesthetically. The Gossip’s Beth Ditto herself is among the chosen lending her vocals to this project. Though their use of her chops is decidedly underwhelming. The vocal powerhouse is seemingly restricted to a sort of soft crooning of the kind of hokey lyrics found in early nineties techno ballads, issuing breathy proclamations of infatuation, pleas of “call me up, we’ll hang out” and all.
When analyzed piece by piece, taken apart and put back together again Rubix Cube style, it kind of works. All the different colors form tiny blocks of light situated in its own comfort zone. The first color representing pure electronica in it’s most simple form. There a two or three cuts in there (“1000 Horses Can’t Be Wrong” and “Ambulance”, for example) that are merely content with robot rocking you with abstract beats, blips, and clicks. Mind numbingly rave about with your mates on that note.
[audio=http://pmatunes.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/simian-mobile-disco-09-ambulance.mp3,Simian Mobile Disco - Ambulance]
Another color takes you back with neo-electro cuts like the fun “Turn Up The Dial”. Dipping a toe in the realm of a Chromeo-esque heralding of old-school hip-hop infused with dance beats. “Audacity Of Huge” sort of straddles that line as well. Yeasayer’s Chris Keating waxing on about PM Dawn, Roomba robots, and Tammy Faye nonchalantly spits his audacious claims of ‘huge’ in the vein of the chest slapping, mac daddy ego-trip. “I got that Bob Fosse. I got that Joey Ramone. A bag of Bill Murray…” And then he asks why he can’t have you. Get your head wrapped around it. All the better to appreciate the sort of lyrical genius behind that much unabashed machismo.
[audio=http://pmatunes.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/simian-mobile-disco-08-turn-up-the-dial.mp3,Simian Mobile Disco - Turn Up The Dial]
Other colors on the cube flex an otherworldly aesthetic. Other vocalists include Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor and Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals. Other sounds shift from a bit of rhythmic afro-pop, to a bit of wistful ambient-pop. All this talent assembled and played around with makes for an interesting game. You want to see how the to get the cubes to click into place and form that multi-colored palette of dance.
This will be about as lackluster as it gets for some. But for most, with the ability to appreciate an assembly of sounds for their own sake, as opposed to having to drown in some hidden meaning or purpose, it will be appreciated. Because at the end of the day, when you’re sweating at a pool party on a water front and James and Jas are in front of you fiddling around and producing music that thumps its way into your bones, you won’t give a toss about whether or not it all fits. Transition after transition, all you’ll ask yourself is, “Am I dancing?” If you are, that’s good enough for SMD.
50-54 — Above Average. It’s more good than bad.
To enter to win a copy of SMD’ Temporary Pleasure on vinyl or CD format (a total of two winners), leave a comment with your thoughts on the tracks you’ve just sampled, Simian Mobile Disco, or (if you’ve listened to it) the album. Make sure you leave your name/email address in the provided fields! Entries will be accepted until September 4th
by on August 21, 2009 ‡ 0 reactions
Best Songs of 2012: Winter 
Rock The Bells 2012: Lineup, Dates and Ticket Information 
New Yeasayer: "Henrietta" 
New Childish Gambino: "Unnecessary" f/ ScHoolboy Q 
Check Out: Icona Pop - "I Love It" (written by Charli XCX) 
New Azealia Banks: "JUMANJI" MP3 
Wild Pitch: disco naïveté 
Rec'd MP3: Purity Ring - "Obedear" 
MP3: Major Lazer & Amber of Dirty Projectors - "Get Free" 
MP3: Theophilus London & A$AP Rocky - "Big Spender" 
Amazing: Florence + The Machine & Dev Hynes - "Never Let Me Go" 
Check Out: Kirin J Callinan: "WIIW (Way to War)" 
Check Out: MS MR - "Hurricane" 
Sleep Over - "Romantic Streams" (CFCF Remix) 
Download: Meek Mill - Dreamchasers 2 Mixtape 
Download: Nicolas Jaar's Essential Mix 
Review: Santigold - Master of My Make-Believe 
Review: Lower Dens - Nootropics 
Review: Toro y Moi - June 2009 
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
my proverbial two cents:
i really REALLY enjoyed Audacity of Huge and its skittering, thumping quality and awesome bass when it first leaked. but having played it so many times as i’ve been struggling to maintain sobriety…it’s kind of lost its luster. not quite as replayable as, say, I Believe, which was my favorite from Attack Decay Sustain Release
when the album was released, though, i fell for Cruel Intentions. the knee-slappingish claps(?) that accompany the syncopated percussion and the bassline = heaven. and Ms. Ditto? great choice for a feature, imho.
as always, i really appreciated the care that SMD used in respect to the highest of high frequencies while nourishing the lows. always can expect very… pleasingly broad-spectrum music, regardless of the quality of the song.
but on the negative side… i think the song featuring Alexis Taylor sounded more Hot Chip than SMD; prosaic. makes me wonder if he had a hand in producing. and most of the rest of the album sounded like what a person with one leg shorter than the other riding a bicycle looks like: not quite there. almost. but not quite.
Wow. I’m suprised an album that can spawn a single as amazing as Audacity of Huge can get such a low rating. I’m really keen to hear it in its entirety just to see where else they took it.
And I’m sure it’s well-produced, right?
Sadly, mistaking a great song for a great album is very common.
Agreed.
It’s a shame the best songs leaked before the album came out. (Audacity of Huge, Bad Blood, and Cruel Intentions.)
Prior to the album being released I heard Audacity of Huge and Bad Blood, both of which i really liked. Then the album came out and I heard the whole thing and i was not impressed by anything except those two songs.
I believe the hype of the release totally has me blinded, but i dissagree with the low score. My favorite track is of course Bad Blood, but i am not dissapointed with any of the tracks. Even those that do not have Kameos are tracks in opinion and could easily be singles. But i think you would be lying if you said that the new album is a disappointment, I think this is a grand sophmore album.
It’s an alright album but I find it far too hit and miss. Their last release was infinitely better.
What the hell? The ratio of bad reviews to good is stupid, it’s like none of you like music at all.
Yeah yeah, you rated it “Above Average”… but 54? that doesn’t sound like a score “above average.” I’d give this a 70ish. That’s more fair.
this album is a beast! it deserves a lot higher than a 54 in my opinion.
I was expecting something like the first album. I’m a bit disappointed, at first. But now I think it’s quiet good, It’s always hard to release an album to the standard of ADSR.
hrmm… I believe this review nails this album right on the head. I really hope that Justice aren’t dumb enough to fall into their label’s pressure to do an album with so many “high profile” collaborations. It’s the Great Electro Act killer, first Fist Of God by MSTRKRFT and now SMD!
utterly contemptible. The most bloated, cynical attempt to climb onto the “wow look @ us were kool” nu-rave bandwagon yet. It doesn’t even attempt to disguise how unbelievably derivative and poor it is, it just recycles simple melodies and cynical “i liek, go out an punch ppl for fun coz i am hard” lyrics with a production style that can only be described as ugly. I urge anyone who is a fan of real electronic music, god electronic music, to ignore this utter pile of shit.
think justice’s bass patterns meet the gorillaz’ psychedelics touch-ups and hip-hop vocals. at least on “audacity of huge” and “turn up the dial”, my favorite tracks off the LP. but not too many great things can be said for the rest of the album. i’d still appreciate this as a gift from you charmers at pma. thanks.
Audacity of Huge is one of my favorite tracks of the year. The video is great as well.
{ 1 trackback }