Details
Track Listing
1. Intro
2. Dance Reaction
3. Miura
4. Pina
5. Square-Pattern Aura
6. Machine Vibes
7. Atmosphrique
8. Soft Hoop
9. Orange Alert - (remix)
10. Strut
11. Caught Up
| Details | | Producer: | Darshan Jesrani, Morgan Geist | | Distributor: | Alternative Dis. Alliance | | Recording Type: | Studio | | Recording Mode: | Stereo | | SPAR Code: | n/a |
Album Notes
This is a compilation featuring new edits of tracks which originally appeared on 12" singles as well as 4 previously unreleased songs.
Metro Area: Morgan Geist, Darshan Jesrani.
Additional personnel includes: Dei Lewison (vocals); Dee Silk (guitar); Kelly Polar Quartet (strings); Ana Dane (flute).
The New York-based production team Metro Area--consisting of veteran techno and house producers Morgan Geist and Darshan Jesrani-have largely worked out of step with electronica's obsession with the new. While the group's revisit of past styles and sensibilities can sometimes appear deceptively retro-fetishistic, it can more accurately be described as a synthesis of approaches encompassing classic disco and boogie to forward-thinking techno and house, all with a decidedly 21st-century angle on production. Metro Area's self-titled 2002 debut collects highlights from their club-format 12-inch singles (on Geist's Environ label), adding four previously unreleased tracks to round out the listening-album configuration. From the spacious pulse wave bounce of "Atmospherique," to the surging synth chords and strings of the Moroder-esque "Miura," the emphasis is on production nuance and carefully crafted arrangements rather than on gimmicky electronic effects. But disco's four-on-the-floor pulse is not the only stylistic territory mined, as the freewheeling funk and Latin-tinged syncopations of "Soft Hoop" and "Pina" reveal MA's broader palette of influences. While looking to the past for inspiration is all too common post-modern currency in the 2000s, the innovative nu-disco of METRO AREA purposes a hybridized vision of futuristic dance that is as enduringly timeless as the music of Philadelphia soul or Detroit techno.
Industry Reviews
Included in Rolling Stone's 50 Best Albums of 2002
Rolling Stone (12/26/2002)
...Their debut release plays off of Italo disco, house, boogie, and soul without ever sounding cheesily reductive...
Vibe (11/01/2002)
4 stars out of 5 - ...The overall mood is evocative of '80s dance music recalled in fragments, and finally rather poignant...
Uncut (12/01/2002)
...This is sparsely embellished and very purposeful music....Theirs is music unlike any other being made at the moment...
Mojo (01/01/2003)
3 stars out of 5 - ...The cream of their quartet of EP's is here...
Q (12/01/2002)
3 stars out of 5 - ...Metro Area's irresistible grooves are capable of inducing a virulent case of boogie fever, Saturday night or otherwise...
Rolling Stone (11/28/2002)
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