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“The tyranny of the kick.” It’s a force that can hoover all the joy out of making dance music, says Benjamin “Sergio” Myers in a recent interview with Resident Advisor. But take it away, and… you’re not making dance music anymore. Right?
Well, probably not. But listening to the latest EP from Myers’ duo, Benoit & Sergio, it sounds like he and partner Benoit Simon have fully settled into the duality that has characterized their music since they released their first EP in 2009. The Adjustments EP, out this week (update, Oct. 8: the EP has been bumped to Oct. 14) on Los Angeles label Culprit, is sliced neatly into two halves: For the Club and For the Couch.
Benoit & Sergio aren’t especially conflicted about making pop music sometimes and dance music other times. As they say in the RA interview, they love DJing clubs—-the duo, which came together in D.C., just wrapped up a string of European club dates and heads back there this month—-but Myers is also a lyrics guy. He reminds us of that on “Adjustments,” the EP’s lyrics-heavy (and largely undanceable) A-side. But even on that subdued track, he’s singing about dancing: “Sometimes I think that DJs don’t understand/That we’ve been waiting around all week for this/And sometimes I think that DJs don’t understand/That we don’t care about their cut-off frequencies or resonance/We just want to dance.”
The tweaked-out “Shake Shake” doesn’t falsely advertise: It’s the ass-shakingest of the pair. But it’s “Adjustments” I keep replaying. (Fortunately for me, Simon and Myers say they plan to make more pop on their forthcoming debut LP.)
Hear samples of both tracks after the jump (as well as a recent Benoit & Sergio remix of Gang Gang Dance‘s “House Jam”), and listen to the whole B&S interview at Resident Advisor.