MP3: Escort – “Makeover”

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 4:09 — 7.6MB)

Link: Escort on MySpace

I cannot tell you how much I hate the Lipps, Inc. song “Funkytown.” It’s like a splinter in the proverbial finger of the when the ‘80s flipped off the ’70s. A disco favorite, it still burns like a cinder that was set on fire for way too long. You hear it in the supermarket and on those radio stations that now play anything. I would hope that the ghosts of radio DJs past are still grumbling over the thought of having to play that one hit wonder, one…more…time. And then to jab at the ashes further, Pseudo Echo revisits the song in New Wave splendor. Punk is blamed for the demise of the disco scene, but New Wave glimmered from the capitalization of the dance music craze. Say what you will, Ministry’s With Sympathy is a great album, and you can thank your shiny disco balls for any House anthem that came roaring out of the genre.

I was in a Half Price Books the other day and A Taste of Honey’s “Boogie Oogie Oogie” came on like a musak heart attack, I cannot help but be consistently intrigued how disco hangs on to society like this leech. All of you who had a record collection from the ‘80s, or a record collection passed on from someone who had a record collection from the ‘80s, I would wager 90% of those collections have the Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack. Out of those 90%, don’t tell me you did not have the curiosity to play the album alone in your room while pawning it off to your friends as a joke. You secretly liked what the Bee Gees did, just admit it.

Disco never died, it morphed. And as bad as that Lipps Inc. song is, it demonstrates the vibrancy of the Casablanca dynasty, even when all that jive talking began to turn into MTV talk.

So what does all of this have to do with Escort? Everything.

Now that the 2010s have brought about a higher awareness of the synth sound — we can argue how Holy Ghost sounds better than anything Yaz has done — you feel the four-on-the-floor foundations move into a modern context. You can be hip and say that your band was founded on the essentials of Italia-disco and more than likely, you will get accepting nods from your peers, but when it comes down to it…it’s still disco and as much as these songs burn blisters in our head, we have to accept it for what it is.

And that is where Escort comes in. This is a band who has studied the genre, dug in deep and implanted their nails deep into the New York City sound. …And Party Every Night is their bible, and the Casablanca scene is their treasure map, digging into album after album of dance floor power. But they go beyond that. Look back to the Fania Records scene and the Fania All Stars where they had exceptional musician after exceptional musician on stage hypnotized into a latin dance orgy that would not quit even after the sun came up.

Not just that, but move ahead to the early ‘80s and the band feeds off of the spark that led to Lionel Ritchie’s “All Night Long” or what the Miami Sound Machine did to the South Beach scene by the mid-’80s, It all comes together into this party cruise that begins with Escort’s song “Chaméleon Chameleon.”

What starts out like a bad ringtone turns into an escapade of synth dance crazy. It’s one dimension to think of this band as something linear, but with 17 members filling the space, you only wished this all happened 20 years ago. If that was the case, this album as we hear it would not be at this level. I can imagine the band initially sitting down and discussing how they could take all of these elements from the past and plan out how they could do it better.

With having this magnitude of a band, they can explore powerful percussive elements on songs like “A Sailboat in the Moonlight.” But when Adeline Michéle puts her vocals into the tribal sound, it sounds like the Love Boat just set sail and Combustible Edison is your night entertainment. Discount it for its ultra cheese and hate it for what it is, but it will infect you like a disease because when this band breaks into a cocktail of horns and hooks, you will change your mind real quick. As Michéle croons, “Sailing, we’re sailing away,” it will turn any situation —even if it’s in your mind—into a dance party. I want to hate this like I want to hate “All Night Long,” but every time Lionel Ritchie tells me we are going to have a party, I’m hooked every time.

Like disco, that is what this band is good for, escapism. “Cocaine Blues” is a power roll call of disco culture all wrapped up in bad cologne, hairspray, and the streets that surrounded Studio 54. It’s the one easy piece of definitive nu-disco. As fun as that all seems, “Why Oh Why” is more expressive, more soulful, and a great song that does not need to rely on schlock to make this song a success. I’m just curious what Donna Summer would think about a song about “Love In Indigo.” Would she think damn, why did I not write this song, or would she think the neon sounds are discounted as a joke. Sometimes, I cannot tell the difference. Either way, you cannot say these songs have consumed this band and have taken on their own form be it the ‘70s, ‘80s or now.

I have listened to this album over and over again, trying to come into some realization that these instantly gratifying songs are just that and nothing more. But what it comes down to is that these are catchy songs that stick to you from the result of amazing musicianship. I cannot find a bad song on this album or a downbeat to pick at. With that in mind, don’t look at Escort like you would Lipps Inc., consider them more a Gary’s Gang for the millennium.