Fischerspooner
#1 (Capitol)What to make of NYC’s burgeoning electroclash movement? It’s fitting that a dance-oriented musical Zeitgeist, which makes much of synthetic beats and cool, sotto voce murmurs, would arrive hot on the heels of 9/11, when artists and civilians alike still aren’t sure whether to laugh or cry. Warren Fischer and Casey Spooner make you do both on their major label debut (and second album overall); they’ve elevated Kraftwerk to a whole new level, with their first single, “Emerge,” sounding as though the Berliner’s Computer Love had been reimagined by Robby the Robot. Fortunately, #1 includes a bonus DVD that does more to explain the duo’s appeal than even their music. Taking off from the work of Helmut Newton, Karl Lagerfeld, and Diane Arbus, the images and videography is pure Euro-trash cheese, writhing, mud-spattered models cavorting with androgynous semi-men; it fits Fischerspooner’s chilly, artful beats like a velvet glove cast in iron. Opener “Sweetness,” along with “The 15th,” meld wintertime, east-of-the-iron-curtain beatbox noodlings with a tremendously driving backbeat, and it works — to a point. The group’s big stumble, though, is an evident lack of soul, baby. It’s made to get your groove on, but James Brown this ain’t. With every nuance filtered through as much electronic buggery as conceivable, #1 is often irresistibly catchy and simultaneously disposable. You can dance to it, sure, but you’ll only end up doing the Robot.
This article appears in March 28 • 2003.