My Disco – Little Joy Album Review

If you’re expecting a traditional dance party from Australia’s My Disco, you’re expecting wrong. My Disco takes the tasteful, throbbing repetition used so well by bands like Clinic — or more recently, Suuns — and amps up the percussive elements tenfold, while deconstructing the songwriting into minimal bits. My Disco is the drum circle, Psychic Ills’ version of dancey art rock, a meandering band that has little or no concern for traditional songwriting structures. Most of the tracks on Little Joy — which sounds far from “joyful,” by the way — can be broken down into a few notes and sounds.

Listen to “Closer” – DOWNLOAD MP3

“Young,” for example, is nearly nine-minutes-long, but more than half of it remains constant, its bombastic use of drumming made for one to tromp around blindly. Halfway through the album, “Sunray” appropriately brings in some light; on this track, the most melodic guitar elements of the whole record are found, but this is short-lived. The next track, “Lil’ Joy,” takes the album back to darker places, though now with more subdued drum elements and what sound like heavier basslines.

For the duration of Little Joy, there are few melodies to hang onto; rather, there are is a whole slew of monotone vocals, and musical tendencies which would translate well into monochromes. It’s a dark, stylistic endeavor crafted for the approval of a very specific audience — that which enjoys music of the experimental and hypnotic variety. My Disco will enthuse a few, but those few will be very enthused.