Boy Trouble

VINYL FORMAT. There are few artists making seriously great music while not taking themselves too seriously; that difficult feat is one rarely attempted and even less often successfully carried out. Benoit & Sergio have seemingly effortlessly managed to pull off that contradictory trick, producing songs that sometimes seem like musical open letters: editorials narrated in the voices of unidentified, yet totally recognizable colorful characters, read aloud against a backdrop of beautifully lush, warm and sensuous electronic pop music. The unexpected juxtaposition of such pristine production and playful lyricism -- first exhibited on 2009's highly praised What I've Lost EP, which included the brilliantly sardonic single "Full Grown Man" -- exemplifies why Benoit & Sergio are one of the most unique and interesting outfits in dance music. It's good news, then, that the Washington, D.C./Berlin-based outfit's eagerly expected DFA debut maintains both the charm and expert craftsmanship of its predecessors. Single "Boy Trouble" (the titular counterpoint to "Full Grown Man") launches the EP with all manner of reasons to take to the dance floor: An exigent beat, a beckoning synthline, a bassline of understated funk. Sergio sings about girls, making note of both their ups and the downsides, without the hindrance of subtlety. "I love girls/With legs like a Ferrari" he states before noting (bemoaning?) the fact that "You need poetry to turn these girls on." It's a song for the best part of the night, full of compulsive rhythms and a climax that builds on sparkly synths.