Biodance - Crisopa

Biodance

Crisopa

n5MD Records.

SCQ Rating: 80%

Naked women don’t figure into electronic music that often. Moreover sex doesn’t sell in this scene, probably because people willing to immerse themselves in a musical form that largely dispels hooks, repetition and vocals likely aren’t the demographic to objectify or be swayed by nude provocations. Not to say that Biodance’s cover-art seeks to challenge or offend anyone; it certainly doesn’t bother me. But it addresses a cornerstone of humanity – sexuality – that rarely gets a nod in comparison to most electronic muses (namely – childhood nostalgia, natural imagery and states of clairvoyance). Crisopa’s style fits far more comfortably into these well-trodden themes than as the sort of slick club beats you’d spin while envisioning naked women in your gin and tonic but like the cover-art, these songs navigate unique headspace.

Without breaking ground on any new territory, Crisopa has taken electronic music’s insular nature to the dance-floor. The evidence is all over “Ruled By Strange New Laws”, a familiar analog-fed drone-piece that rises into a frothy, dream-bound club-banger. That template follows suit after the starry piano refrain of “Gaviot”, the patient choral of “Es Todo Mental” and the latest house rhythms on “Biodance With Me”, with each boiling over into a rich euphoria. These lush beats aren’t intended to clash against whatever dubstep happens to be cresting at the moment; Crisopa’s dance-floor remains a personal one – your apartment’s kitchen with the lights out, your neighbourhood after dark, virtually anywhere that feels intimate. Because despite Biodance’s modus operandi, which gives Boards Of Canada’s mystic feel a linear push into the line-up outside the club, Crisopa’s work demonstrates vivid sensuality in soft focus. Whether listening to the BoC-indebted loneliness of “White Vacuum” or the seismic landscape of “Planets With Lava Oceans”, Biodance deserves to be heard in the dark - before, during or after you’ve been in proximity to someone you love. It’s that sort of listen; a headphone record you dance alone to.