A Touch of Class - A Touch Of Class Still Sucks

A Touch Of Class Sucks!’, the first collection of productions and mixes released in 2003 by the New York studio team of Oliver Stumm and Domie Clausen turned out to be quite visionary for it’s time, containing various musical styles from post-punk to electro and disco, proving that ATOC foresaw the accelerated emergence of these consecutive retro styles by ironically denouncing them before they even had established themselves. Visionary also by including unknown newcomers such as Scissor Sisters as well as using avant-garde mash up and blend production techniques with a genre defying stance. ‘A Touch Of Class Still Sucks!’ is the follow-up, keeping that same uncompromising attitude, still defying specific genre and not buying into any one hype of the moment. ATOC’s impressive roster of production work (Scissor Sisters, Waldorf, Services) and cutting edge remixes (The Gossip, Le Tigre, Erasure) delivers unashamedly daring mixes of the highest craftsmanship, offering a wide variety from the dub-disco tip to distorted dance floor territory, with full extended 12” versions, unmixed. Starting off with The Gossip’s ‘Listen Up’, ATOC add their signature bells and whistles and attention to detail while extending the original to over twice its length, taking it into dance-floor direction without sacrificing any of it’s original rock bite. On Le Tigre’s ‘After Dark’ they nonchalantly incorporate a different chord progression, both enhancing the chorus and blurring the lines between electro, disco and rock even further.  In Scissor Sisters’ ‘Filthy/Gorgeous’ they add the filth that was so desperately missing in the original, making this a drunken party favourite. On the other hand The Ones’ ‘Ultramodern’ is an old school hip-hop meets grimecore affair. Their own ‘I Feel Upside Down’ demonstrates with compelling studio wizardry their use of electronics combined with live instrumentation. Waldorf use the 19th century classic ‘Erl King’ by J. W. Goethe for a prog-rock opera epic, while  on Services’ ‘Element Of Danger’, distorted search-and-destroy synthesizers mark the new style of electro-metal. Erasure’s ‘Don’t Say You Love Me’ increases this to rave levels for maximum effect. Overall ‘A Touch Of Class Still Sucks!’ illustrates beautifully the newest directions the avant-garde dance world has to offer. With their ironic take on the late 70s “Disco Sucks!” campaign, they not only denounce themselves as well as those re-emerging retro styles, they also intentionally address the irony that this discredited 70’s genre and dance music in general remains one of the most influential music forms of our time. You won’t score any sales with this to the kids looking for the latest pure Detroit obscurity, but don’t get it twisted… the commercial appeal of the duo who have refined the most potent formula of glittering alerna-house-not-house is second to none. Reviews so far include… “This sophomore collection shows they’ve lost none of their touch. 5 stars” (DJ)… “A smart collection” (Music Week)… “Quality modern disco… Inspirational. 5/5” (Blues & Soul)… “So far from sucking it’s just not true. 4/5” (IDJ)… more reviews and features to come in One Week To Live, Record Collector, Zoo and others, followed by extensive ATOC UK DJ tour in spring 2007.

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