by RUPERT BOTTENBERG

While it may be premature to scribble obituaries for electroclash, it’s clear that last year’s explosion of sleazy, narcissistic synth pop (I mean that in a good way) is in the process of being superceded by something much cooler—in my book anyway. In New York City, the dives of Brooklyn and the Lower East Side are giving birth to a fresh batch of bands and DJs harking back to the disco-punk no-wave movement of 20 years ago, acts like the Rapture, Playgroup, !!!, LCD Soundsystem and a band called Radio 4.

That last one totally kicked my ass when they opened for Soundtrack of Our Lives at the Bowery Ballroom last weekend, at the opening-night festivities for the CMJ festival. A dangerous-disco groove rockin’ steady on the drums, punctuated with tuff percussion. Jagged, enervated squawks on the guitar, minimalist keyboard support and frontman Anthony Roman held it together with punchy, angular funk on his bass and bluntly agit-prop lyrics.

The next morning, first thing, I snatched up their second album Gotham! to make sure it wasn’t just the beer calling forth the glowing review. No, the CD kicked ass too. Radio 4 do fiercely politicized punk that you can get down and shake a tailfeather to.

Dance, punk, dance

“When we started in ’99, it was just the three of us, bass, guitar and drums,” Roman tells me over his cell from outside Chicago—the band’s on the road with Kentucky’s VHS or Beta, likewise disco rockers but more partytime than party-line. “It was pretty minimal and straightforward, influenced by Wire and Gang of Four and stuff like that. But it wasn’t quite as danceable, there wasn’t the electronic influence.”

Radio 4 hit the next level in ’01 with a disco-mix of their tune “Dance to the Underground.” No longer were they playing it up to the stationary indie-rock anoraks. Now it was about revolution with a groove.

“We were trying to bring the two together. When we recorded our first album, we didn’t even really think we were ready to make an album yet. Whereas with the second one, we really conceptualized it and had a pretty good idea of what we wanted to do. We were talking about various records and influences for a long time.

“Some of them didn’t even have so much of an impact on the music. It was the freedom we were excited about—like Radiohead’s Kid A, which was a band really taking chances and marrying rock music and electronic music, in a way that was very different from us. Some of that album, when it works, sounds like the future of music in some ways. There was also something creeping in from the other end. There were a lot of exciting dance records that we were hearing, even some of this faceless New York house music, where you wouldn’t even know who the artist was, just stuff you’d hear in clubs. And then there was Talking Heads’ Remain in Light—that relationship between the band and the producer was something we were trying to get to with DFA.”

The newest new wave

DFA—“Death From Above”—is the label/production unit on the tip of everyone’s tongue these days. It’s Tim Goldsworthy and James Murphy, a pair who seemed to know exactly what people wanted, even when the people themselves didn’t. With a remix for Le Tigre and releases the Rapture, Black Dice, LCD Soundsystem and the Juan Maclean, plus of course insanely rocking parties in Williamsburg, they’ve locked down the central position in the disco-punk insurgency.

“We were asking around town who the best people to do this kind of record with were, and everyone said we should talk to James and Tim. Tim comes from a real electronic and pop background, he’s worked with UNKLE. Then Murphy’s more like us, coming from a real punk rock background. It went really well, right from the get-go. Part of it was making us less afraid of the whole studio scenario. They made us try things we would never have done on our own.”

Of course, the backlash lashes back quick. In a classic case of missing the forest for the trees, critics have been digging at Radio 4 for jacking Gang of Four, PIL, Mission of Burma and such—passing by the larger vibe of that time, when hip hop, disco, punk, funk, reggae, rock, salsa, Afro and electro all met on equal terms, intermingled and built something truly forward.

“People seem to be pretty excited about playing up their record collections, and in a sense, that’s what they’re criticizing the bands for. All those reviews are just lists of obscure, late-’70s post-punk bands. It’s not really about that, it’s about taking influence from that and trying to combine it with newer things. We’re not trying to do something like electroclash, which was all about taking the usual elements of the ’80s and trying to dress them up—limousines and cocaine. It’s more serious. What we’re writing about is completely relevant to right now. To call it a tribute or retro is ridiculous, you’re not even listening to the lyrics.”

Mobilize the massive

Right, the lyrics. Bold challenges to “get behind the Struggle, right now,” seeing as how “the ideas of the ruling class should not be the ruling ideas.” Pleas that AIDS not be regarded as last year’s problem, or that crumbling civic infrastructure not be passively tolerated (the amazing “Save Your City”). Delivered the way they are, they take on the anthemic effectiveness that the Clash once deployed.

Roman’s not one to err on the side of understatement. He’s been quoted as saying that if the lyrics seem obvious, why aren’t more people saying these things?

“They’re obviously not—all the interviews we’ve done overseas, people are asking us, ‘Is it true that…?’ So if people don’t know, then the point for us is that it makes sense that we talk about this stuff. People will ask us if it’s true that there’s a cabaret law in New York that forbids dancing. If they’re bringing that up, then we’re making people aware of something. That’s the start of what you can really do with music in that realm.”

That cabaret law, a pet peeve of Radio 4’s, is a prime example of how music can mobilize the masses. “It’s become less of a problem in the last year, because people put together groups to react to it and raise some resistance. Apparently, it existed forever, but it was never really enforced—and it’s kinda not being enforced again. There were plenty of shows for that cause, blow-outs in Brooklyn that brought out thousands of people. They definitely made people aware of that cause and got money to the groups that were trying to put a stop to it. I think music is one of the best, if not the best, way to do something like that, especially when you’re dealing with something that’s music-related. It’s perfect.

“The majority of our stuff is less about strictly New York and more universal, addressing things that matter all across the world. Some of the songs, though, are very specific to New York. In many cases, you wish you could do something that could be bigger than that, but that’s what you’re feeling at the time. You can’t really second guess it too much, but I do wish for us to be more universal in the future.” :

With VHS or Beta and les Angles Morts at
Casa del Popolo on Saturday, Nov. 9, 9pm, $10

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