eMusic Review 0
Housed in a pitch-black sleeve adorned with a cheap and cheeky cartoon of a topless nightclub succubus, Black Devil Disco Club's self-titled 1978 EP was a minor masterpiece of dark analogue sorcery and tribal bongo voodoo. Created by French library musician Bernard Fevre, Black Devil Disco Club heralded the future of dance music a couple of decades too early and promptly disappeared into the gutter of history. Long a holy grail of collectors, the EP was rereleased by Aphex Twin's Rephlex label in 2004 and a world now accustomed to eerie Italo grooves welcomed Fevre's twisted reinterpretation of Giorgio Moroder with open ears, resuscitating Fevre's career in the process.
Since its rediscovery, BDDC has released a couple of albums, which largely hewed to the original EP's blueprint, but Circus is distinctly contemporary. While this necessarily implies that the old mystery is gone, Fevre's glossier new sound does pay some dividends. "X Paradise," featuring Aja Emma of Canadian electro-popsters Cosmetics, imagines Kim Gordon fronting Italo disco group Doctor's Cat, while "Pavement Opposite" sounds like Kate Bush trapped in John Foxx's underpass. To be sure, there's plenty of plagiarized Moroder arpeggiation (see lead single "In Doubt" and "Shee Flees the Silence"),… read more »
