A Group Of People: "2009"

Jeepers—the Year of the Ox is almost upon us, and when we come down from fireworks and spicy nibbles into a bellyache of livestock paranoia, here’s a last mushroom canapé to lift us from all that contaminated pork in the press. Not a blue tongue or black death in sight as the vibes light up for “2009,” sweet like a dab of electric sucrose and showing that the Group Of People who authored it are perhaps greater than the sum of their respective hunter-gatherers. Made up of two fun-time Christians—as in first name only, not faith—the Group squirt cream in the faces of poopers and slip pills into Jehova’s Witnesses’ water. Disco striplights set up a feed line for rip-off Cut Copy on this, their latest cut to surface, hot on the heels of the succulent twelve-inch they dropped only three years ago for Parfüm. I admit, it could well be dip-tested by the gimlet eared as any other New Order minus vocals and smearing, but there’s something…I don’t know; it’s one of those clones that’s competent, aware of its origins in a good way like the resurrected wife of the rogue scientist. Brought back to the party for one final saunter, the addition of guitars and computer strings add just the right measure of melancholy to proceedings, generating a level of introspection that says this won’t just get spun at gatherings. It’s a long way from Binary Finary’s “1998” but then so is most of the planet—except those crowded into sticky superclubs to hear the DJ compete with Big Ben, that is. This one’s much more portable.