Attack Decay Sustain Release

SMD's excellent debut album as a stand-alone group, Attack Decay Sustain Release, is for dancing, not moshing.

This is a damn good party--best not to miss out.

Attack Decay Sustain Release defies such trite categorization and, ultimately, what it is or isn’t doesn't really matter. All you need to know is this is quality.

It's difficult to detect any flaws in Attack Decay Sustain Release. Simian Mobile Disco have created a seamless electronica album that can carry the torch for the New Rave movement, and prove there's a great deal of substance beneath the fad to be found.

It's love song 'I Believe,' really sets the group apart from 2007's other big-beat revivalists, draping ex-Simian bandmate Simon Lord's FutureSex'd croon in Italo-disco shimmer. By keeping its heart, the result edges out Justice's more brutal † for most exciting, um, "blog house" debut of the year.

While Release has all the hallmarks of a great DJ mix album, it's a record meant for pop consumption. [Nov 2007, p.176]

When contrasted with the tide of other like-minded electronic albums released recently, Simian Mobile Disco’s effort feels fresh and vibrant and with an execution that consistently delivers on simple but fascinating ideas.

Attack supplies nothing too complicated or heady, just primal party fun. [14 Sep 2007, p.148]

You won’t care that it’s gleefully empty, shamelessly primitive, pre-rational, lo-fi. You’ll be too busy dancing.

No, this is not the full-fledged underground dance-revolution many were expecting. However, it remains one of the most guaranteed party starters this side of Girl Talk.

The duo's effortless ability to plunder electronic genres without losing their identity makes Attack consistently fresh. [Oct 2007, p.111]

The album does have enough variety to prevent it from becoming redundant dance exercise. [Fall 2007, p.84]

Some of the songs on Attack Decay Sustain Release feature vocals in various call-and-response styles, but more are tracks like 'Tits & Acid,' which employs hard, tight sirens and bangs in service of ideas that register without a need for explication.

Not a bad record by a long stretch but a disappointment nonetheless.

The new tracks seem either rushed or cobbled together, Frankenstein monster-style, with elements culled from the successful pre-release singles, which comprise half the album. Many are just plain boring ('Sleep Deprivation,' 'Wooden'), often meandering too long, as if somehow being nuzzled within a sequence of far more satisfying productions would elevate them as well.

Despite some other choice cuts, there’s no cohesion to hold it together.

Attack Decay Sustain Release sets a dance-friendly party mood and sustains it over the course of forty minutes, but it does not explore new territory.

On a Saturday night, in an adrenaline soaked club with a nasty bass--Simian Mobile Disco is amongst the greatest fun you’ll ever have. But on a perfectly round, 16 gram piece of plastic--it ain’t really worth a damn.