Dance, The – Soul Force [Yellow VINYL] - New LP

NYC 1982

A New York based early 80's No Wave band that spun off from The Model Citizens after one EP produced by John Cale while other old band-mates formed Polyrock. Material's Fred Maher joined them on drums for some recordings. The band was fronted by Eugenie Diserio, known for her sexy homemade fashion designs and her sultry voice that often played off suggestive lyrics.

Sensual No Wave Glamor! 40 years later, the angular beats, pulsating grooves and Film Noir romanticism of Soul Force sounds like it was recorded yesterday. This first ever US release is pressed on colored vinyl!

Soul Force Review by Fred Thomas: For their second full length, 1982's Soul Force, New York art funk band the Dance pared down their lineup and decamped to the studio for an intense self-produced session. Made up in part of songs road-tested on tour and other tunes spontaneously worked up in the studio, Soul Force shifts gears considerably from the propulsive, danceable post-punk the group was making just a year earlier on their 1981 debut, In Lust. While there are still elements of the stylistic melting-pot sound that New York's downtown scene was exploring in the early '80s, the precision grooves are replaced with either hypnotic, droning repetitions like "Tumble to the Power" or tightly wound fits of energy like "Guerilla Love." The streamlined version of the Dance is a bit murkier and noisier than the skronky Contortions/DNA-esque versions of the band that appeared on earlier work, but their embrace of experimentalism makes Soul Force more of an interesting listen than mere dancefloor fodder. Vocalist Eugenie Diserio leans far more into a B-52s influence with her singing in moments like the nervy melodies belted out on "You and Only You" and the spirited multi-tracked shouting on the choruses of "Looking for the World." Soul Force is meandering and strange at times but is captivating in its weirdness. The Dance retains some of the same elements that made their earlier material stand out -- unexpected organ hooks barging in out of nowhere, raw lyricism, a street-smart approach to hybridized styles -- while finding a more organic articulation of their sound. It's a sometimes confounding album that feels both chaotic and fiercely deliberate at once, and it deserves a place among the other boundary-pushing albums that grew from the downtown New York scene to revolutionize independent music culture.