Acid Washed – House of Melancholy

On paper, Acid Washed sound like a fairly generic Parisian revivalist disco/house duo; yet the second LP from Andrew Claristidge and Richard D’Alpert eschews the bombastic peaks of Justice or Daft Punk for something with a subtler, more intricate relation to its influences. House of Melancholy draws upon Moroder-style driving, dramatic synth arpeggios (Heartbeat Maker, Prince Acid) and jacking Chicago house (Fire N’ Rain), but retains a contemporary edge in the way it entwines those genres.

That sense of careful blending is evident, too, in the duo’s willingness to combine modern and vintage equipment; as the album progresses, the Italo elements are increasingly meshed with drum programming and swirling synths that reimagine disco and early house through Pro Tools. It's this ability to marry attentiveness to the subtleties of electronica’s roots with an awareness of its current possibilities that makes House of Melancholy both unusually complex and sensitive, and utterly dancefloor-friendly. [Sam Wiseman]