Phillips & Driver

Phillips & Driver

Recorded in 2004 – already four years too late for a millennial tie-in – Gretchen Phillips and David Driver's Disco Dance Party 2000 owes its existence to the Yamaha DJX II. Despite the mass-market keyboard's easy-to-dismiss ubiquity, its rec-room beats come alive in the service of these eight songs on vinyl. Phillips & Driver counter the electronic rhythms with highly humanistic vocal readings, which keeps the disco synthesizer night school of X's nightmares at bay. Phillips, whose version of Donna Summer's "I Feel Love" interpolated with Bad Company's "Feel Like Makin' Love" was a highlight of Two Nice Girls' local repertoire, takes a cue from "Funkytown" to kick-start this fiesta on "The Lusty Lass Is a Lucky Lady." Driver, an original cast member of Rent, recounts erotic dreams about an actor/convict on the saxophone-enhanced "A Momentary Meld." "Reluctant Butch" is a smooth R&B stab at gender-based reductionism that finds Phillips unleashing a poignant, hilarious rant against the other B-word, while "Love Theme From 'Day To Be Gay in the Catskills'" is ready-made for a Zamfir pan flute remake.