New York Cake

New York Cake is Kano’s boogie and Italo post-disco follow-up to their debut album. It’s an exercise in reinterpreting the disco sound via the process of integrating synths, sequencers and live instruments into a cohesive whole, all precision-tooled for dance floor use. One of the great attractions of Italo is how in this reinterpretation process, producers sometimes didn’t get it quite right but came up with something fresh in the process. That’s the case with this Kano album which really does have its own idiosyncratic disco identity, as though it was disco that was assembled blindfolded. 

Opener “Can’t Hold Back - Your Loving” with its smooth piano chords and live bass has something of a Chic feel to it but with a fat synth line sitting right in the middle of the mix all the way through it, while “She’s A Star” layers pinging synth arpeggios and synth-drums with funky bass and a slightly mournful vocal. The album also includes a speaker-rattling street-funk track, the aptly named “Party” and the whole album is unselfconsciously joyful-sounding dance music.