British brothers Simon and Robin Lee – AKA Faze Action - have been bubbling under the radar for a couple of decades. There was a point in the late Nineties when the disco-powered duo were poised to break through as the super-hip Nuphonic label’s signature act. But this was in the days before Daft Punk, multiple Norwegians and your Aunt Mildred had rediscovered, reinvigorated and reinvented disco. In some alternate universe Faze Action invaded the charts from the disco-house underground circa 1996, while the Disclosure siblings were still busy watching Clifford the Big Red Dog, sat in their nappies.
Not this universe, though. Here, Faze Action ended up as a highly regarded dance cultural footnote. It seems unlikely their new album, their fifth, will change this yet it would be righteous if it did since it’s exquisitely constructed, fusing multiple genres with seamless style, like a cuddlier, funkier, less self-conscious LCD Soundsystem.
Comparative reference points run the gamut from Konono Nº1's percussive Congolese hypno-beats, mashed up with almost ecclesiastical chanting on “Caruso’s Monkey House”, to good old Chic on the gigantic bass-bouncing disco-tastic “Freak For Your Love”. While there are electronic elements smeared all over, this is a very human album. Acoustic instrumentation constantly adds richness, such as the cello’s appearances on the vaguely Stone Roses-like slowie “Stuck” and the Afro-funky trumpet-fuelled “Echoes of Your Mind”. Elsewhere the Brothers Lee purposefully head into history, imitating the sound of classic Chicago house, unreconstructed, on “Time by Your Side”, or taking a trip back to Eighties jazz-funk on “Magic Touch”.
Body of One isn’t a dance album that all sounds the same, pleasant to get stoned to but quickly forgotten. No, Faze Action have approached their music with higher intent, like original New York avant-disco maverick Arthur Russell, and the result has depth and integrity, with the added bonus that late at night in a club back room, it’ll take your head out and set the feet wriggling.
Overleaf: Listen to "Freak for Your Love", albeit a tougher, punchier club mix rather than the one on the album
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