Clinton: Disco & The Halfway To Discontent

Much of Cornershop's identity comes from its ability to synthesize disparate musical elements—dance-pop, hip-hop, traditional Indian music, and so on—into a unified sound. Strip away some of those elements and the result almost has to be less compelling. Still, for most of the electronic-oriented Disco & The Halfway To Discontent, Clinton (Cornershop's Tjinder Singh and Ben Ayres) makes a pretty good go of it. The daytripping side project of talented dance dilettantes, Clinton deals in fairly elementary beats, but Singh and Ayres compensate for their lack of expertise with ample creativity. As in Cornershop, no influence is off-limits, as evidenced by the presence of retro robotic voices, discarded disco, and outmoded keyboards alongside sitars and turntables. It doesn't always work, and even when it does, there's no getting around the unshakable sense that Clinton is a side project above all else, with none of the transcendent moments found on Cornershop's albums. But even as such, it's enjoyable, if by no means essential, a pleasant between-albums footnote from musicians with too many ideas for just one band.