- Simon and Robin Lee know what they're doing. As the brains and most of the brawn behind Faze Action, the brothers Lee have been making faithful, consistent disco homages for over 15 years. In that time, they've shown themselves to be exceedingly competent, capable of evoking everything from the music's R&B roots to its spacier limits, and even occasionally combining the two.
But is competence, in and of itself, enough to engage a wide audience in an artist's work? Faze Action's latest album, the self-released Stratus Energy, suggests that the answer is no. A well-produced blend of time-honored riffs played on all the right instruments, virtually every track on Stratus Energy could make its way into a disco DJ's set. Many of them probably have already; four of the album's nine tracks (two of the 11 tracks listed are interludes) have already been released as 12-inch singles, and they are unimpeachably solid. "Goodlovin" has superbly miked percussion; "Stratus Energy" is energized by real, purposeful strings; "Disco Warrior" runs on smooth, coursing keyboards. Each is guided by steady, veteran hands, and they are distinguished, above all, by their functionality.
In single form, though, the relatively anonymous feel of each of those tracks is forgivable. For some DJs, it might even be a prized quality. But over the course of Stratus Energy's 50 minutes, as each safe, carefully arranged mix of disco motifs passes by, that anonymity takes a toll. Stratus Energy does not luxuriate in space disco's opulence. It doesn't overdose on American disco's glitz. It doesn't revel in the campiness of self-identified disco culture. A track like "Venus and Mars," for example, has all the right elements of an absurd European space disco record: a silly choir, rippling synthesizers, a string section, even some lyrics filled with trite intergalactic nonsense. But the thrill, at least for the Lee brothers, seems to begin and end in putting check marks in the appropriate boxes. Far from being invigorating, decadent workouts, tracks like "Venus and Mars" and "Starship" are, instead, weirdly pat.
Faze Action recently assembled a band to tour Stratus Energy this summer, and on some level that has to be encouraging. Recording a song in a studio to drop into a DJ set is much different from physically playing a series of songs for a live audience. Who knows? Even though they've done this for previous albums, maybe this summer the Lees will finally realize that competence is not a personality trait.
Tracklist 01. Intro
02. Good Lovin
03. Hypnotic
04. Venus And Mars
05. Starship
06. Danae’s Journey
07. Stratus Energy
08. I Wanna Dancer
09. Disco Warrior
10. Weightless
11. Keep It Coming