The latest disc by the Field — the nom de musique of
Swedish musician/producer Axel Willner — could have been titled
The Last Days of Disco. While projecting undertones of
pensiveness, Yesterday and Today evokes memories of the
glistening dance-floor mirror ball in the era where dance music was
still called “disco.”
Yesterday doesn’t have a retro approach, however — the
technology and the lustrously languorous and warm production are of
this decade’s IDM (Intelligent Dance Music) and electronica performers.
(Examples: Oval, Aphex Twin, and Mouse on Mars.) What Willner and
company play here brings to mind the Giorgio Moroder productions for
diva Donna Summer (her 1977-80 glory years) and eccentric rockers
Sparks (their 1979 disc No. 1 in Heaven). This has the hallmarks
of Moroder’s style — out-front, metronome-like beat,
rhythm-driven and repetitive, and adorned with airy, sweet, brief
melodic motifs. Occasionally, such as on the title track, a bit of dub
influence (ethereal echo) is heard, as is the motoric rush of early
Kraftwerk (“Autobaun” era). “The More That I Do” brings past and more
recent styles together — the shimmer of ambient house and
chill-out, the inexorable cadence of industrial styles (late Cabaret
Voltaire, Psychic TV), and a looped, surreally mixed female vocal
sample that drills into your cranium like the earwig in that Night
Gallery episode.
If dance-in-trance is your cup of tea or you’re nostalgic for your
American Gigolo/”Le Freak” heyday, put the aptly titled
Yesterday and Today on your short list. (Kompakt/Anti-)
