“Don’t try to be original, just try to be good.” This, ’s Chaz Bundick says, was his motto while he worked on his second album as Les Sins, the producer’s dance floor-focused side project. Fittingly, Bundick didn’t come up with this concept—he attributes it to designer Paul Rand, who probably filched it from , and so on. As someone once paraphrased from their mentor: all’s old under the moon.
That quote seemed to serve Rand well in his revolutionary . For “Michael,” it scans as both a pre-emptive throwing up of the hands (“I know, I know, I made a French electronica album…”) and a humble brag (“…but itap a good one.”) at the same time, as if Bundick’s lowered the bar only to bench it right back up again.
As for whether or not it’s good, “Michael” delivers sporadically. “Bother” does the most and with the least: a clap track, some pitched up drum n bass and a no-nonsense mantra, “Don’t bother me, I’m workin’.” On the disco-funk “Why,” Bundick takes his best shot at “Discovery”-era Daft Punk—another group to Rand’s words of wisdom—right down to a glib set of sing-along lyrics delivered capably by the un-Google-able Nate Salman. “Talk About” touches on grime, straight house and sprinkles a bit of Nas in for good measure, with a vocal sample from that undermines the song’s otherwise feel-good introduction to the album.
Then again, much of “Michael” is almost subliminally overcast. For every campy footnote (“Sticky”), there are two parts melancholy. “Call” is a high-anxiety jumble of 90’s electronic genres, but unfortunately ends up sounding like something off of the soundtrack to “The Matrix.” “I know I shouldn’t tell you what I haven’t told you,” a pitch-phased voice warbles over “Bellow”’s minor chords, which seep into view more and more on “Michael” with each successive spin.
The quote Bundick used to navigate “Michael” makes sense in Rand’s field. Graphic designers tend to have a concrete goal in mind—a finite good—that they’re trying to reach in their work, usually in the vision of a client. That doesn’t necessarily follow for indie musicians. But “Michael” has, if not a goal, a mindset itap trying to achieve. Half of it wants you dancing in the streets between your headphones, and the other half just looking out a window. None of it, as advertised, is particularly original. But provided you catch it in the right mood, or vice-versa, “Michael” delivers on its promises.
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Dylan Owens is Reverb’s all-purpose news blogger and album reviewer. You can read more from him on his website, or the comment sections of WORLDSTARHIPHOP.
