Discosis

One of the most unheralded and underappreciated CDs of 2001, Bran Van 3000's Discosis perfectly synthesizes the band's equal urges toward dance music, pop melodies, and practical jokes. Where the Montreal-based collective's first album, Glee, had bounced rather erratically from mood to mood depending on which members were featured on which track, Discosis finds everyone on the same page, resulting in a disarmingly cohesive album with something for everyone. As intelligent dance albums go, it's on a par with Deee-Lite's World Clique a decade earlier, though instead of environmental issues, the disc sticks to affairs decidedly more personal and pop cultural in nature. Highlights include Bran Van's unpackaging of a lost Curtis Mayfield gem for the lead single "Astounded," some variations on the girl-responding-to-commodification motif in "Loop Me" and "Loaded," imaginative and humorous essays on young love in "Montreal" and "Love Cliche," and startling awareness of the record business in "Rock Star" (a track troublingly prescient of the ensuing financial troubles of the band's label, Grand Royal: "dreams locked in the record company"). Not many pop melodians can cut a sharp dance groove, not many dance auteurs have a cheeky sense of humor, and not many pranksters harbor smart pop instincts -- yet Discosis exhibits all of the above and then some. The fact that it was buried by poor distribution (Grand Royal folded before the album ever had a proper U.S. release) was one of the great musical tragedies of 2001. ~ Joseph McCombs