Benoit & Sergio – Where The Freaks Have No Name review

There’s been a growing sense of excitement surrounding the debut release from the Visionquest label set up by Messrs Troxler, Curtiss, Reeves and Crosson that was threatening to render it slightly underwhelming when it finally arrived. Thankfully that is certainly not the case as Benoit & Sergio demonstrate on the three tracks that make up Where The Freaks Have No Name a restrained yet totally sultry take on house music dynamics which is quite infectious. As you’d expect from half of the Ndf duo that brought us the delightfully charming “Since We Last Met” on DFA last year there’s as much attention paid to song writing as there is to dance inducing aesthetics here with opening track “Walk & Talk” perhaps being the most striking example, with sleepy almost vocodered vocals lamenting a partner’s lack of hygiene to a backdrop of crisp handclaps and stifling subaqueous melodies.

The title track is naturally a tad freakier, being vaguely reminiscent of Visionquest boss Troxler’s vampiric turn on last year’s Art Department release, before a swift turn into some truly epic synth sweeps that come to characterise the track. “Day Residue” hogs the B Side at some ten minutes of sprawling synth flutters that noodle with a glorious soaring unpredictability over the top of a stripped down house skip and bump, aided by the repeated vocal refrain and elastic bassline. Arriving in a striking screen printed purple sleeve bearing the Visionquest logo and inner card insert depicting what can only be described as a woman with strong thighs, the music is more than matched by the presentation – big things should be expected of both Visionquest and Benoit & Sergio, not least because the latter will soon be gracing DFA with their idiosyncratic take on house music.

Tony Poland