The debut album from the talented duo of Amelia Lironi and Naomi Mackay, who met while studying music at Riverside College, is an exquisite masterpiece with its stylish melding of 1970s styledisco and funk with 1980’s post punk, their perfectly syncopated dual vocals playing off the sweeping synths, disco handclaps and funk/punk guitar riffs and creating an overall sound that is elegantly suave and coolly sophisticated.
This album has feel good written all over it, the infectious nature of the music, and it’s laidback geniality has a way of catching you unaware, enveloping you in it’s warm embrace until you feel invincible, like you don’t have a care in the world and nothing really matters anymore, apart from the music. Just close your eyes and let it take over… if your life is overpowered by funk? Then funk out to the sounds of Quad 90.
The album opens with the band’s debut single, Le Blank a song that sets their stall out from the very beginning. The glorious disco funk melody is like sunshine for the ears, while the note perfect in-sync (not N-Sync as autocorrect just suggested!) vocals are like manna from heaven, it’s nigh on impossible to sit still while listening to this. As Le Blank fades, the tempo rises, disco handclaps announcing the arrival of Contort Yourself, one of their best singles to date, Hang on. Rewind a second…who am I kidding, picking their strongest singles would be like choosing your favourite child, every one of them is sheer perfection. Anyway, the underlying highly addictive funk rhythm is obvious again but this time the direction leans more towards angular post punk with its jagged guitar riffs.
Running Away has Chic written all over it, both in the influence of Nile Rodger’s and co., but also in the coolly suave overall feel the song exudes, elements of the New York scene of the late seventies and early 80’s are evident as influences here too. Get up to get down…On Opaque the duo take their lyrical inspiration from Carly Simon “you’re so opaque, I bet you think this is all about you” and the musical inspiration clearly comes from a similar source as Texas borrowed from for Summer Son when they went down the soulful ABBA/Disco route. The musical references continue to fly in as there is a continuation down a soul route, with Too Much Too Soon giving Stevie Wonder Higher Ground vibes from the opening bars, I’m getting so blissed out by now that the melody seems to take me onto a more astral plane and I’m convinced I almost hear the Doctor Who theme in the synth lines.
Indulge me, I need to explore this again for a moment, and I can’t quite find the right words to describe the effect and feeling those vocals from Amelia and Naomi have on me. Their perfect syncopation, the mellow laidback groove they create together has such a graceful elegance, such an effortless coolness and low key self-assured confidence, never approaching arrogance, is so calmingly reassuring you can almost feel the stresses of the day disappearing. The further you allow yourself to be drawn in by the songs, and the longer you listen, the more the tension in your muscles disappears, and a feeling of wellbeing washes over you. I swear it’s like a form of meditation…
Sentimental Sunday takes those vocals to a different level, and despite the apparent upbeat nature of the melody there is a certain melancholy to the song that for some reason takes me right back to the 80’s, oh, and how I love a load of cowbell…And back in the eighties is where I stay for Internal Ops, with jangly guitars that are reminiscent of so many of the Glasgow bands of the day, taking their influence from US funk and soul, as well as that, I could also easily visualise Sister Sledge or the like singing this one.
Forget the 80’s the 70’s is where it’s at for Overcome, as disco meets Motown in a way that defies expectations and has my toes a tapping, if there was a dance floor right now I’d be on it and I’d be dancing like no-one’s watching, spinning out in joyful bliss. The album closes out with an instrumental that lives up to it’s name. Distorque blends synth lines with discordant guitars with more of those handclaps, and sonorous basslines. It’s like Sister Feelings Call era Simple Minds meets Propaganda.
Not a weak spot to be found anywhere on this most gloriously uplifting of albums. I’m ready to go again but for now…Funkpower, over and out.
Quad 90 – Last Night From Glasgow – Instagram – linktree