Dancing While Falling (Deluxe Edition)

Album review

Will Holland refashions Quantic into a full-blooded disco act on Dancing While Falling. As studied and distinctive as retro-contemporary disco albums by early Faze Action or Escort, it sees Holland and a host of collaborators turn out a largely celebratory batch of dancefloor nuggets that land somewhere between the Salsoul Orchestra and Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band. It's the type of disco derived from soul, decked out in strings, horns, and Latin and Afro-Caribbean percussion -- a Holland specialty -- in a way that is intensely striking without being ostentatious. Central to the album is recurring lead voice and co-writer Andreya Triana, a richly graceful natural who played a similar role on Ben Westbeech and Kon's self-titled album as the Vision. Connie Constance takes her turn on "Get in the Ride," a bristling dance-punk deviation with a chest-quaking synthesized low end, while Rationale sweetly fronts the more soulful "Unconditional." A pair of invigorated group-vocal belters can be found on the first side. An equal number of cinematic instrumental pieces are on side two.

© Andy Kellman /TiVo