Get ready for your monthly dose of deep house and disco goodness this time coming from NYC heavyweight producer/DJ, Metro Area’s Darshan Jesrani and the hottest thing to come out of Scotland since Gordon Strachans hair, Craig Smith. Not only that, but you’ll also be on the receiving end of a delightful warm up from Developments resident selectors Chris Feinmann and Tom Lynch... click here to read the interview!
RA concludes its week-long look back with our round-up of the best tracks and albums of the past decade.
In his recent book, Berlin, Techno and the Easy Jetset, Tobias Rapp claims that techno in the '00s was in many ways a reaction to techno from a decade earlier. "The nineties were about rave and everything that went with it," he writes, "and then, after all the great successes and excesses, the whole thing collapsed as the end of the decade approached. Around the turn of the century, the music went back underground in order to revitalize itself."
Looking at the list of singles below, Rapp's assertion rings true. Electronic music went through a metamorphosis in the past ten years, taking on such a diverse and heavily niched form that it seemed to lack a singular identity. But as disparate as the sub-genres became, there were always tracks that managed to catch everyone's attention, like Burial's "Archangel," Claude Von Stroke's "Who's Afraid of Detroit?" or LCD Soundsystem's "Someone Great." It's tracks like these that make up our list: Tunes that transcend all the sub-genre titles, and stand out simply as the best electronic songs of the decade.
01. Metro Area - Miura [Environ Records, 2001]
It's no secret that the beat to "Miura" is basically a cover of "Funky Town." I was using a kick and a snare, and I thought it would be nice to put a little reference in. I felt no compunction about doing it because I was using the Stars on 45 version of the song. I was ripping off the rip off. So I left this part where you can barely hear the cowbell in the break. The best part, I think, is the bassline, though. I work to get really empty basslines, and "Miura" is probably the emptiest one I've ever done. It's just two of the same note in the verse. I really enjoy when there's no virtuosity involved, but it still comes across as expressive.
We finished the record as we usually did at Darshan's place, who had a real studio in a loft in Manhattan right under Sonic Youth at Murray Street. It sounded like God was vacuuming upstairs when they were working, it was so loud. It was there that we recorded the vocals of Dei Lewison, who was actually the daughter of Woody Cunningham, the drummer of Kleeer. It was completely accidental, but we were so excited to be working with someone related to this disco guy. Something felt really right about having her work on it with us.
It's a bit hard to talk about "Miura," because it's a track that came together in my bedroom. I think that's common to all bedroom producers. I'm thankful, of course, that it got big. It was the biggest record on the label. But, like any big record, we also grew to resent it. When we would DJ and people would ask us to play it, I'd think, "That's really nice...but it's going to sound exactly the same as when you play it at home."
– Morgan Geist
02. Metro Area - Metro Area [Environ Records, 2002]
Essentially a modern electronic take on the '80s boogie sound of yore, Morgan Geist and Darshan Jesrani's first and only full-length together is a landmark album in more ways than one. Largely responsible for the resurgence of the electronic disco sound, this collection of the previous Metro Area 12-inch singles is still played by DJs from all genres, building nu-jazz DJs a bridge to house and opening a door for techno heads into disco. The tried-and-tested dance floor anthem "Miura" will be the one that you know inside out, but from the bubbling funk of "Dance Reaction" all the way through to the slinky shuffle of "Caught Up," the New York duo didn't put a foot wrong. With its crisp sounds, clinical arrangements and ridiculously funky grooves, Metro Area truly is a timeless album.
– Richard Carnes
Metro Area have 3 tracks for the upcoming album already done. So only apriximately 5 more missing and then we can look into a precise relase date of the finally upcoming Metro Area Album number 2!
We still have a performance of them both avaialble for the 14th of November and one weekend in December is free to choose.
Metro Area's music is so basically tasteful that the beginning of Fabric 43 threw me off at first. Over "Ghar Aya Mera Pardesi (Intro)" by Babla's
Disco Sensation, Morgan Geist and Darshan Jesrani don't just get on the
mike to introduce themselves and their mix: They narrate the
proceedings. Geist: "Yeah, ladies, clap, clap! Clap, clap, clap, clap!
The disco experience is all about the claps." Jesrani: "Yeah! And as a
matter of fact, we're about to give you your very own disco
experience." Then they pretend they're playing the lead instrumental
parts: "That was the horn that Fabric gave us instead of our advance
money . . . It was an incredible deal—we totally showed them." When the
hell did these guys turn into comedians, anyway?
The answer, of course, is lighten up. Especially since the
next hour-plus—which, rest assured, passes without anymore jokes from
the DJs—is, like the best of Geist and Jesrani's music, as singular and
direct as biting into an orange. Even within the refined conceptual
framework of the Fabric mix series as opposed to the more eclectic FabricLive sets, this is an impressively laser-focused mix. Its one major shift
comes when Gary's Gang's "Makin' Music (Dub Mix)" climaxes the
electro-ish opening third and slides beautifully into Voyage's
"Souvenirs," whose light wah-wah guitars and sun-kissed piano line do
the Hustle on the Carnival Cruise Line's swingers' convention special
of your dreams. But even that transition has the linear consistency of
a freshly honed knife.
After that, the music expands: Five Special's hairy funk, the
pseudo-jungle (Tarzan, not Metalheadz) "The Natives Are Restless" by
Ray Martinez; a bizarre electro-dub version of the Temptations' "Cloud
Nine" by Play by Numbers; fellow '80s-nostalgic Baby Oliver's "Feelings
2." All of it moves so sinuously you won't even notice if you aren't
watching the numbers. And when they exit on Devo's "Freedom of Choice,"
it's a left turn into rockier terrain that its selectors don't seem
especially impressed with themselves for finding—which doesn't mean you
shouldn't be, or won't.
Morgan Geist and Darshan Jesrani continue to tease. This, their first twelve inch in more than two years, is yet another reason to hope that another full-length is just around the corner. Considering Metro Area 7 was announced nearly five months ago, however...
Despite the maddening length of time between releases, each Metro Area slab is a treasure of sound design. The synths on 'Read My Mind' are juicy, the drums punchy, Philip Owusu's vocals warm and inviting. 'Read My Mind' is the first time that the duo has released a track with vocals and they could have hardly picked better: Owusu is vague enough lyrically that he doesn't distract and honeyed enough that he goes down easy. (It's followed up by a special dub for those DJs looking to ease into the Metro Area featuring... experience.)
On the flip, Geist and Jesrani go cosmic with the arpeggiators set to stun and the groove maximized for disco demolition. Again, it's a sterling combination of excellent sound design and attention to songwriting. And there's even a few jungle mating calls thrown in for good measure.
As always with Metro Area, the wait is half the fun.
Tracklist: Metro Area - Metro Area 7
A1 Read My Mind
A2 RMM Special Dub
B1 Erodyne
