As part of the storied dance-music duo Metro Area,
Morgan Geist has become famous for crafting rich, immaculate disco of a kind
that barely existed back when disco thrived. His solo work tends toward more
electronic moods, but Double Night Time answers to the same habit for all those
things that make disco scan: patient rhythms, organic drum sounds, decorous
strings, and especially a sense of space to let things breathe and take shape
as songs instead of just simple dance tracks.
Most of that figured into the early days of
techno, too, and Geist makes his allegiance to the creation story known in the
album-opening "Detroit," a sleek, gliding night drive in something like a Fiero
with the interior of a Rolls-Royce. Geist's elegant production suits the voice
of Junior Boys' Jeremy Greenspan, who sings most of the songs here—all
with a sort of hush that sounds simultaneously reverent and heartbroken. No
part of stately songs like the instrumental "Nocebo" and especially the
would-be pop hit "Ruthless City" sounds desperate for attention, but they pay
attention back with warm details that prove all the more wowing for their
restraint.