AlunaGeorge
Body Music

AlunaGeorge are one of the best revelations of the past year and probably the heirs of a turbulent and borderline mainstream pop territory. Discovered by chance during a boring spring day as a university intern, Aluna Francis and George Reid immediately captured my attention with the track and video of Your Drums, Your Love, a subtle and appetizing composition about to cross the fragile boundary between the synthpop clan and the chill-out family. Needless to say, the digression that followed made me discover little gems on the staff such as You Know You Like It and particularly the most recent and successful extract, Attracting Flies, a charming little gem of old school house and funky-garage craftsmanship, a living (and especially sonic) embodiment of the refined English electronic context, completely detached from the overseas dirty beats but also from the classic europop that seems increasingly confined to the Scandinavian area. The debut of AlunaGeorge almost perfectly coincides with the debut of the duo Disclosure, another important chapter of the predominantly Anglophone electronic revival, and it is precisely the joint venture in the track White Noise (included in Disclosure's debut, Settle, which I warmly recommend listening to) that allowed Francis and Reid to climb Her Majesty's top ten for the first time.

The saturation of AlunaGeorge could only occur with a whole set of semi-avant-garde pop that is Body Music. Rich, spicy, warm, and a pinch melancholy, Body Music tells what should be the new course of the honest chart performers, that is, the magical combination between the impeccable futuristic reference of electronics (the one that's “well-made”, packaged with the skill of a Pellegrino Artusi in the recording studio, without the confusion of DJ sets), the sweetened romanticism of R&B, and the sparkling bubbles created by the chill-out. A union not much inclined to divorce in itself that seals eternal inseparability with the addition of garage-urban tradition made in "God Save The Queen." In short, what is proposed as “music for the body” takes the shape of a jukebox for relaxation and peace of the senses, perhaps reached on an intimate little beach, at sunset with a nice fruity glass on a silver tray.

The album opens with Outlines and we are immediately flooded by a James Blake-like synth-ambient breeze before savoring Reid's chill out bleep game in You Know You Like It. In the third chapter of the saga, the single Attracting Flies, the duo presents an unusual close encounter with a funky house garage rhythm that immediately closes into a melancholic-retro flow dictated by Your Drums, Your Love, sort of a revival of Morcheeba's golden age. The dialectic between relax-oriented tracks and less relaxed beats continues enlisting electropop treasures like Superstar, Just a Touch (on the edge of R&B-Synth harmony) and Bad Idea against the soft Jamie Woon-like expressions in Kaleidoscope Love, the best ambient pop piece, Body Music and Friend To Lovers. Also worth mentioning is the chill out-funky mix Lost and Found and the lively synth confusion in Diver.

Music for the body, for karma, for inner spirituality... or just simple but tasty pop to consume in small and intense bites on a fresh sunny day? Body Music is probably the perfect summer album, electronic but not overly danceable, relaxing yet not mushy or soporific. Recommended both to the lucky ones spending the whole beautiful season amidst the waves and to those who will settle for setting up their beach in the backyard: the summer is magic for everyone.

AlunaGeorge, Body Music

Outlines - You Know You Like It - Attracting Flies - Your Drums, Your Love - Kaleidoscope Love - Bad Idea - Diver - Lost and Found - Best Be Believing - Superstar - Just a Touch - Body Music - Friends to Lovers - This Is How We Do It