Simian Mobile Disco : 'Temporary Pleasure'
Released: 17th August 2009
Label: Wichita Recordings
James Ford and Jas Shaw may just be the most sought-after spinners of recent times, and after this Temporary Pleasure it will be solidified. Having already produced for the likes of Arctic Monkeys, Klaxons and Air, this dynamic duo have already wowed with the delectable Attack Decay Sustain Release.
One thing for certain is that there are ten temporary pleasures on this album, and the recruitment of such stars as Gossip’s Beth Ditto, club duo Telepathe and Hot Chip mastermind Alexis Taylor, is evidence that SMD have their sights set soaring.
10,000 Horses Can’t Be Wrong is true to form and this echoic electro programme pulls you from pillar to pillar with its sultry scratches that prove horses indeed do not lie. Couple this with first single, Audacity of Huge, a vexed robotic repetitive ditty; distinguished by Chris Keating’s vocals that question “I got it all, why don’t I have you?” and the clubber in you is not too far from comfort.
Young Fathers boast of “amazing sex” and take the pleasure pill in a completely different direction with their rap/dub enhancement of Turn Up The Dial - complete with circuit broken creeps and cyber shoots.
Woman of the moment, Beth Ditto, brings the diva and the New York disco beats to full effect on Cruel Intentions, which to me is her best work to date. Its powdered pop hooks disguise Ditto’s played-down vocal and turn it into a track that would sit nicely in the top ten.
SMD’s own tracks (free from fame) are among the stand out sounds. Ambulance is the type of track that plays when you’re at that far gone point of a night when you really don’t care. You float on its glitch-fuelled cosmic mix that drops unadulterated analogue synths like acid, while Synthesize is animalistic and archaic with its demented “woo-ooh” warbles.
The icing on this indulgent cake comes in the shape of a Pinball. Its pelts you with crystalline cranks and Telepathe’s serene synthed romanticism is written all over it. Pinball is laden with woody wobbles and the lyric “I’m going to win you back” wonks all over it.
9:30am came and went and by 12:50pm I was still swirling shapes. Albeit, in my pyjamas. If one thing is for certain it’s that this is by no means Temporary Pleasure.
Words: Adam Mallaby
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