Though HEALTH improved on the Boredoms-inspired sound of their self-titled debut with last year's more melodic Get Color, they still shine brightest on their remix collections. They followed up the 2007 release of HEALTH with Disco, a surprisingly coherent collection that re-jiggered their sinewy, abrasive tunes. On Disco, artists like Pictureplane and Nosaj Thing channeled HEALTH's chaotic rhythmic power into tight, four-on-the-floor tracks and created sweaty, spazzy, and sexy songs from the noisy source material. And most importantly, Disco seems to have influenced them in making new music. Get Color found HEALTH taking cues from those remixes, growing in a more streamlined, synth-heavy, groove-oriented direction.
Which brings us to Disco2. You could say that it's a remix album of a studio collection that was influenced by a remix album. But rather than becoming an indistinct photocopy of a photocopy, the album brings HEALTH's strengths sharply into focus. Though the heavy tribal pounding and drum freak-outs of the originals are mostly stripped away, the new beats highlight how central rhythm is to these songs. The remixes also give a newfound heft to Jacob Duzsik's reedy, almost-feminine voice, which is already higher up in the mix on Get Color than on HEALTH. Javelin's version of "In Heat", for example, uses Duzsik's otherworldly vocals as its jumping off point, cushioning the singing in a funky bass line. Fleshing out the productions, the album is carried forward by waves of shimmering synth figures, many of which are ripped from HEALTH's originals, an approach that shines a spotlight on the band's underestimated way with hooks.
Though Disco2 is ostensibly a collection about HEALTH, it also serves as a nice survey of some of the more interesting producers on the scene. Montreal-based artist CFCF takes on "Before Tigers" and gloms onto the ethereal vocal melody that lurks beneath the guitar squall of the original, turning it into a bittersweet, shimmering song marked by nostalgic 80s synths. But British producer Gold Panda's version of the same track is completely instrumental, a hypnotic stew of repetitive reverberations and glottal percussion. And while both Denver electro-punk Pictureplane and Black Moth Super Rainbow's Tobacco take on Get Color's best track, "Die Slow", their versions-- the former an astral rave jam of Balearic beats, the latter a syrupy psychedelic concoction of squelching synths-- couldn't be more different.
There is one new HEALTH track on Disco2, "USA Boys", and the band was smart to kick the album off with it. With its dark, cyclical synth riff, droning, outer-space vocals, and gothy dancefloor melody, "USA Boys" not only fits in amongst the cleaner, glossy-electronica vibe of the record, but is also one of its best tracks. This promising development suggests that Disco2, like its predecessor, may be a bridge to the next phase in HEALTH's evolution.
