Released: 04/03/22
*DREAMHOUSE ALBUM OF THE YEAR 2022*
With their debut album, Topical Dancer, the Belgium-based duo of Charlotte Adigéry and Bolis Popul have already made a case for dance album of the year. Imagine an Acid-inflected Italo Disco record that has the art-pop vocal chops of Laurie Anderson, throwing in a pinch of ESG for good measure, and you wouldn’t be too far off the mark. Equally remarkable are Adigéry’s lyrics. French-born and of Belgian-Caribbean lineage, the singer’s beautifully stark and poetic lyrics deal with colonialism head on, with lead track ‘Blenda’, inspired in part by Reni Eddo-Lodge’s Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, opens with the gut-punch of a line “Go back to your country where you belong”, and discusses how Adigéry feels like “a product of colonialism”. For anyone doubtful as to whether cutting edge dance music can also be effective politically, Topical Dancer is the perfect riposte. Stunning.
The deluxe edition