Topical Dancer is a driving, playful and political game

Last week recommendationSotomayor Wabi-sabihas a very special atmosphere that you don’t find in a lot of records. One of the few things that came to mind was 2022 Spot dancer From Charlotte Adigiri and Polis Popol, which I ended up visiting a lot this week.

The two records don’t look particularly similar on the surface. But they’re both tough about breaking down the electronic and organic elements that are primed for abandon on the dance floor. The way the sounds and rhythms come together sounds very similar.

There are, of course, differences. Important ones. Adigery and Pupul draw more from rock and early electronic music, sometimes evoking acts like Talking Heads. The bass lines on tracks like “Ceci N’est Pas un Cliché” overcome any reservations you might have about throwing your hands in the air and waving them around like you don’t care.

However, it is not just empty fun. Positional dancers The political comments are almost as sharp as the bass lines. In the song “Belinda”, Adigiri chants: “Go back to your country, where you belong. Siri, can you tell me where I belong?” Over the rhythmic bass and 80s drum machine beats.

In “Esperanto” she offers vague advice to people who say problematic things: “Don’t say ‘But I’m allowed to say that because I grew up in a black neighborhood’, say ‘My neighbor… my neighbor'”, highlighting Nnn sound for much longer than is comfortable. And don’t say “white people can’t dance,” say “Tom marches to the beat of a different drum,” and he delivers every syllable delightfully, in what feels like the musical equivalent of awkward comedy.

However, it’s not just confrontational takedowns of racists, xenophobes and misogynists. There’s the standout song late in the album, “HAHA,” which features Adigery laughing for about four minutes at the end, interrupting only occasionally to say, “I guess you should have been there.”