Breakbot’s 2012 record By Your Side was one of my favorite end-of-year discoveries, perhaps because it so fully embraced (what I think is some of) the best of post-modern pop shamelessness.  Indeed, if pop’s post-modernity is one where the entire western recorded/production canon of 20th Century is available (and acceptable) for mass repackaging in the 21st, I always hope for results as delicious as this one from Thibaut Berland (under the Breakbot moniker).

With By Your Side, Berland pulls from any number of 80s and contemporary packages of club R&B and synthesizer-based dance music with a mix somewhere between peers from Pacific! (featured on this record), Junior Senior or Chromeo.  -In sum, you can expect rousing electric piano, funky bass/guitar, Michael Jackson vocals (via Ruckazoid), early 90s-sounding club-backup-vocal-riffs and smooth melodic flourishes that allow even the weakest numbers to go down with Michelob-like ease.

Now, in a lot of ways this is four separate records:  MJ-ish with Ruckazoid, midtempo ’70s-sounding R&B with vocalist Irfane, cool Miami Vice instrumental fragments with a brief Pacific! two-song medley.  While such distinctions could be jarring, (and may very well be for some listeners) the combination and free-ranging flow of stances makes this a more compelling listen.  Instead of one aesthetic, the album operates more along the lines of the DJ-Kicks mix by Chromeo, which covered much of the same sonic territory via samples and other artists’ tracks.

In the first mode, with the Ruckazoid-backed numbers such as “Fantasy”, it is impossible not to be struck by how Off the Wall the vocals are.  While an A-B of the Ruckazoid tracks with the genuine article can quickly remind us why the King of Pop is in altogether separate emotive order of magnitude, Ruckazoid does manage to pull from the pre-Thriller golden age of the MJ vocal (before Michael equated over-singing with cultural relevance).  Of course all the aforementioned vocal ability would be moot if it wasn’t for strong songs, which, are delivered.

[Also, note how much “Why” pulls from the repeat of the same word in “Human Nature”.  Look it up!]

Moving on, the Irfane-fronted part of the record doesn’t benefit from the highs delivered via Ruckazoid.  However, songs “One Out of Two” and “Baby I’m Yours” show the writing remains strong throughout.  The former benefits crucially from a lengthy intro, separating it out from the previous hit and giving it time to draw the listeners into its own merits, while the latter shows a possible [more traditional] direction for any number of lo-fi dance/chillwave types after their dreamscapes play out.

In regards to Pacific!, it is encouraging to see their brief medley with Berland be so strong after their disappointing record in 2010’s Narcissus.  Enjoy the urgent Stratocaster-sounding riffage through most of “By Your Side Part 2” as was also present in most of Off the Wall‘s most upbeat tracks – little choices like this help give the proceedings continuity.

The last element of this record are the smattering of instrumental numbers, two of which “Programme” and “Easy Fraction” are some of the best moments on the record!  The eighth track “Programme”, for one, was a real joy to discover as I tried to determine what from my music-listening past it reminded me of.  Finally, in one brilliant flash I tracked down the eighth song (also with double-Ms) from The Alan Parson Project record Eye in the Sky, “Mammagamma”.  (I ‘d like to assume all coincidences between the two tracks are intentional.)

Though By Your Side is certainly not the most cerebral pop record of 2012, it definitely is one of the most fun to listen to.  Stupid fun!  And let me assure such a quality is a virtue.  It isn’t often that something you put on reveals its pleasures so easily.

-MYH