Pharaohs plow an unwavering path through the past, taking a route through various strains of dance music that's unapologetically nostalgist in outlook. They're a four-piece band from Los Angeles, originally started by Alejandro Cohen and Samuel Cooper. It's hard to picture their debut full length, Replicant Moods, as the work of four people, mainly because it has more in common with the quiet elation of lone producers like Barcelona's John Talabot. Still, like Talabot, Pharaohs aren't averse to bringing in occasional outside forces. This album's collaboration with the avant-leaning Estonian singer Maria Minerva on "Miraculous Feet" even mirrors the pop raptures of Talabot's 2011 match-up with Glasser on "Families". Elsewhere, the classicist approach taken to house and Italo influences is a natural evolution from "Uhh Uhh" off the band's debut EP, where they resembled a less drug-addled version of the Happy Mondays.
An element of the ultra-relaxed groove from that EP remains here, but mostly everything is tighter and more economical than the music that came before. Often it's close in content to the vintage Roland tweaks of certain songs on the Rapture's Echoes, which in turn formed barely disguised homages to the techno groundwork of pioneers such as Kevin Saunderson, Derrick May, and Juan Atkins. In fact, the entirety of Replicant Moods carries a similar ethos to much of the DFA label, where popular tropes from dance music history reverberate in a contemporary setting. What's impressive is how effortless it all sounds, flicking from dark to light with barely a graceless join in sight. Pharaohs have a real feel for pace, mood, and setting, whether it’s through harder-edged Detroit techno adoration ("Everything") or in sun-scorched stretches of plain euphoria ("Replicant Moods").
The tougher stuff doesn't make up the bulk of this album. Instead, Pharaohs are most interested in inhabiting the stretch of clubland that builds toward full-on comedown. "Beyond Within" is the only track that reaches for Cafe del Mar-inspired ambience, with the rest making transitory steps into that zone, from the lightness of the Minerva-fronted song to the acid gulps that stretch out across the retro-rusty drum patterns of "Again". This music doesn't take you anywhere new and nor does it set out to; instead it demonstrates how certain house and electro moves have a certain timelessness when executed with the kind of skill displayed here. It wouldn't be easy to put a place and time on Replicant Moods if played cold, with no knowledge of from when and where it came. "F & M Suite" even feels like a close cousin of T-Coy's "Carino", a classic Latin-inspired house tune from back in 1987.
Pharaohs succeed principally because they don't feel the weight of all those influences bearing down upon them. The parts all feel familiar, but the way the tracks here effortlessly transport you out of the everyday is an enviable trick that suggests this isn't a band that feels in awe of the material they're sourcing. It's an interesting route they’ve taken-- "Uhh Uhh" suggested something that was edging ass-backward out of a rock format into a more club oriented form, and they've taken that impulse and really sharpened it into something aimed squarely at the dancefloor. There's something to be said for waiting to make an opening statement, for working on your craft. It's paid off for Pharaohs on Replicant Moods. They sound less sloppy, more in control of what they're doing. "Uhh Uhh" was a perfectly serviceable, rough-around-the-edges calling card. But here? Here they just sound sublime.
