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 2009s highly praised <i>what ive lost</i> 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. its good news, then, that the washington, d.c./berlin-based outfits 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 dancefloor: an exigent beat, a beckoning synthline, a bassline of understated funk. sergio lethargically 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.< its a song for the best part of the night, full of compulsive rhythms and a climax that builds on sparkly synths. the accompanying remix from visionquest — the detroit-bred, berlin-based label led by producers seth troxler, ryan crosson, lee curtiss and shaun reeves — amps things up, making the beat a more prominent, driving and club banging force. the flipside features >full grown man< and >what ive lost<, which reveal themselves to be worth more than a few revisits.
