Escort - "Cocaine Blues"

Track from Escort's self-titled debut LP.

http://www.weareescort.com

Escort burst on to the scene with a string of critically acclaimed 12" releases that quickly became staples for DJs around the globe. The Brooklyn-based, seventeen-member "disco orchestra", founded by producers Eugene Cho and Dan Balis, and fronted by lead singer Adeline Michèle, features an incredible cast of musicians who have played with everyone from indie rock titans Arcade Fire to avant-classical luminaries Alarm Will Sound.

Escort's long-awaited debut LP is steeped in the venerable tradition of clubland's holy trinity — New York, Chicago, and Detroit — but it seems particularly reminiscent of mutant-pop luminaries such as Kid Creole and the Coconuts and Ian Dury, who somehow managed to translate their sardonic wit to the dancefloor. By embracing the legacy of these classic but forward-thinking acts, they have yet managed to create something strikingly new.

The LP's opener "Caméleon Chameleon" is a perfect example: a three-act play about the French serial impostor Frédéric Bourdin, set to a beat that's equal parts Michael Jackson and the Tom Tom Club. The tracks, "Make Me Over" and "Why oh Why" explore the musical possibilities of another era, rather than simply trying to re-create it. The 1937 standard "A Sailboat in the Moonlight" is twisted into a lost Kid Creole classic. The album also includes the definitive versions of their 12" DJ releases — which have been remixed, remastered, rearranged, and re-recorded specially for the LP — to complete an album with absolutely no filler.