Any readers of this blog (are there any?) may remember seeing a group named Broker/Dealer showing up in my tops of the year in years past, with their debut album Initial Public Offering in 2003, and their one and only EP for Ghostly International in 2008, Soft Sell. Times have changed and the duo are currently just one, recording under the name The Beat Broker, real name Ryan Bishop from the Bay Area of California. Even though he is a friend of a close friend of mine, I swear I recommend this album without any sort of bias. Frankly, when I was about to listen to this album for the very first time, my bias was probably leaning the other way. Broker/Dealer were just so incredibly great in my view, I figured it had to be because of the chemistry of the two working together. And I’m sure the success of their recordings were a result of that most certainly, but sometimes artists excel when they are on their own, and this album seems to show that Mr. Bishop’s talent may have been restrained in that environment, as this is truly an incredible album from beginning to end. It’s almost frustratingly so, because this was released right around the same time that an artist who will go unnamed (Daft Punk) was releasing their umpteenth cash-in of an album, an album so brazenly ripping off disco and the artists of the time they not only named one of their songs after one of electronic musics biggest pioneers, Giorgio Moroder, but managed to get him on the album. My thoughts on that Daft Punk album were not only if you are going to emulate those disco songs of late, why not listen to the original recordings that are far superior, but also if you are going to embrace the fantastic music that came out during the disco era (and we’re not talking ‘YMCA’ and ‘We Are Family’), why not embrace it, expand upon it, and push it further into the future and the next generation. That would be the ultimate tribute, and a far more rewarding listening experience. And that’s where my frustration comes from, because that is exactly what The Beat Broker has done here. This is the most forward thinking pop dance record I have heard in a long time (just listen to the song above, ‘Beat to the Street‘ for proof), while at the same it being a huge shout out to those that started it all. And even better, it’s incredibly fun, so happy, filled with so much gorgeous atmosphere and melodies and beats, it’s criminal to me that rubbish like Daft Punk flourish and this doesn’t seem to gain much of any traction. Well, that’s what I’m trying to do here with this review. At one moment sounding like a cosmic take on Italo Disco, packing the dance floor, then in the lounge chilling out with your martini, dressed to the nines, people-watching with your incredibly gorgeous partner, and you’re a bit dazed and a bit confused, but happily so. It’s the sound of being content with the way you’re moving so fast into the future. It’s a level of ecstasy – when the night time is your day time – with endless possibilities – and it’s only 3am. That feeling of life being a blur around you – for once – and you’re so unfazed – and you never want it to end. The future is bright, you have the best mates in your life, and you just want to dance with them, soak in the love that oozes from every crevice of the modern forward thinking city you call home. It’s neon-lit, it’s the sound of the most optimistic days ahead, it’s the sound of invention. The sound of the future is bringing the past – what makes us who we are – forward. It’s that atmosphere and of past & future coming together, as we all should come together, with huge beats and hook-filled melodies. It’s the sound of being lost being a feeling you embrace. This is how electronic music is done. It’s human. It’s organic. It’s alive and natural. A brilliant, gorgeous debut. Put on your dancing shoes.