Escort: Animal Nature

On their second studio record Animal Nature, Escort’s leaders Dan Balis and Eugene Cho continue the Studio 54-esque party that began with their 2011 self-titled debut. Back in the early 2000s, Balis and Cho met at Vassar College and began making house singles as a duo. Years later, they added vocalist Adeline Michèle, and a 17-piece live band to the mix at their shows. Animal Nature isn’t a huge departure from their debut; the production is cleaner, and there’s a bit less funk in the mix. This is a more polished, less-DIY affair than 2011’s debut, something you can see even in the cover artwork: on their self-titled, Michèle goofed off in a parking lot, but 2015 Escort seems to have found its brand identity, and it looks alluring in neon.

On Animal Nature’s ten new songs and nine remixes, Escort finds its footing in a post-disco phase.  Title track "Animal Nature" doesn’t disprove the many allusions to Daft Punk the band has gotten over the years, but it also brings to mind parallels to LCD Soundsystem’s "Get Innocuous!" The lyrics don’t make sense—"Stand up, stand up bang your drum, we are the barbarians"Michèlechants throughout "Barbarians" like a Vietnam War song—but they don’t have to, because the production quality remains at the forefront for Escort. A cohesive, well-produced R&B-infused disco album is no easy or small feat, but Escort keep their focus sharp and momentum pumping, with the full band lending weight and warmth to the perfect period synths.

They’ve moved from funk disco into a late ‘70s disco/early ‘80s synth phase, blurring genre lines.They throw in a few welcome curveballs: covering St. Vincent’s Annie Clark is an ambitious gambit, but Michèle’s penchant for theatrical singing over scattered chiptune beats fit right in with Clark’s aesthetic on "Actor Out of Work."  It keeps the brittle, plasticine quality of the original while scaling it up for club dancefloors. These moments are welcome, as there isn’t always  a ton to distinguish them from other, similar acts working in the always-crowded ‘70s-saturated house and disco music field. By the end of Animal Nature, Escort proves it’s gotten craftier and has found a bit more clarity, and they hit a nostalgic sweet spot that will never grow old.