Runaway has been roaming the dark realm between house, techno, and disco for a while now, pillaging the countryside and spreading general dance chaos. Releasing on everything from Wurst to REKIDS to I’m a Cliche, Jacques Renault and Marcos Cabral are redefining the NY dance scene. They make new music that references the old sleaze of disco and repackages it into dark beardy club anthems. They have a new release out that I have been quite into and I have to say that their “Shadows” release that showed up on L&PT’s BBC Essential mix is truly incredible.
So normally I write some more and tell you how great the release is, but I’m drunk and my mac n cheese is almost done so I’m just gonna give you the trax. Here they are, tonight’s a two-fer. The new track off of the new label On The Prowl and the classic from the aforementioned release, dig dig dig it.
I am so confused, you guys, about, like, criticism, and what is “good” and what is “bad,” and also, what is “cool,” and “uncool.” When I was in high school, basically anything that my dad listened to, like Peter Gabriel and King Crimson was “uncool,” and “rap music” and “hardcore punk music” was “cool.” Then I started listening to “dance music,” which was “cool” because my “dad” didn’t “listen to it.” But then I discovered “Balearic music” and “Beardo Disco” which is not even a real kind of music, but is “cool” (because people with beards who live in Williamsburg listen to it), but, guys, it is basically composed of music that my dad listens to, like Peter Gabriel and King Crimson.
So basically what I have done up to this point is stop “judging” things or “having opinions,” because it seems like a waste of time, if ultimately I am going to just end up listening to whatever comes out on certain record labels, plus my dad’s CDs. This is easy, now that I live with my parents, and don’t ever go out, or talk to people, except on the internet.
But the thing is: I don’t actually like the Blackbelt Andersen CD very much. No, really. I have listened to it like, eight times now, and it’s kind of… boring. I mean, I don’t think I could hum any of the tracks to you. Or even, like, tell you what it sounds like (I think there are synths? Probably some kind of… drumbeat). And this makes me feel funny inside, like when I see a man naked. The whole point of the music I listen to is that it is totally boring! And inoffensive! I don’t really even like this “ironically.” I mean, I don’t dislike the album. I just… it’s just… what is going on. RIP my taste.
What I do like, though, is this remix that Blackbelt Andersen did of the Skanken track “Mental Overdrive.” I think it might also be “boring,” but it’s “boring” in a way that I can relate to. Or even dance to! I don’t know if I’ll every be able to figure out “what’s cool,” and probably, this is not “cool,” because it is, like, “deep house,” or something. But I still like it! And I think/hope that that’s “cool.”
