Lets look back to what I refer to as the golden years of my music listening career. I was young, I was bold and I certainly would never dance at a disco. If you were to hand me tracks from Girl Talk or The Knife I would scoff at you and give you an At the Drive-In record or the DFA '79 (RIP) demo. Fast-forward a few years and I can dance with the best of them. In fact, dancing to the likes of Justice or MSTRKRFT has become a well enjoyed weekend pastime for me. I have no one else to thank but my dance-loving friends from university and little place in Ottawa called Zaphod Beeblebrox. Don't get me wrong bands, like ATDI and DFA still top my favourite artist lists but dance artists have become a mainstay on my ipizzle.
The electroclash/dance artist from Melbourne, Aussieland known as Muscles is the latest addition to my ever-expanding music collection. His late 2007 release Guns Babes Lemonade is an eclectic mix of pop songs and dance floor anthems, all with brilliantly laid out tongue-in-cheek sing-alongs that blur the line between laptop pop and arena chanting. On the album's stand-out track (and my personal favourite, the song that got me hooked) Ice Cream, Muscles juxtaposes club violence "he could have a knife / stab me in the gut / bleeding on the floor / shoulda kept my mouth shut" with dancing with our shirts off " i just wanna dance with my shirt off".
Bloody brilliant. Electro-pop may be on it's way out but it's albums like this that will make me fondly remember the days when I was just another sweaty body in a sea of happy, sweaty people.
Muscles - Ice Cream
Muscles - Sweaty
(orginally posted by moi on Bridging The Atlantic)
