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JD Samson & MEN - Time EP

JD Samson & MEN

Time EP

JD Samson is best known for the work she has done alongside other people. She backed up the larger-than-life Kathleen Hanna as a member of the electro-dance project Le Tigre. In recent years, Samson has picked up songwriting credits, helping out a wide array of artists including Christina Aguilera (she and her Le Tigre bandmates co-wrote and produced “My Girls” from the 2010 album Bionic) and Cobra Starship (Night Shades’ “Shwick”). Great projects all, but they have overshadowed the dance anthems Samson and her musical partner Michael O'Neill have been cooking up under the name MEN (now changed to JD Samson & MEN so as not to confuse fans of Brooklyn garage-noise group the Men).

Rare is it, though, that any of the artists Samson have worked with have returned the favor. Until now, that is: For this EP, Alex Suarez and Ryland Blackinton, two members of Cobra Starship, jumped into the studio with MEN. From the sounds of these two tunes, the matchup was mutually beneficial. Suarez and Blackinton are free of the über-pop direction Cobra Starship have taken. And Samson & Co. are given the chance to put a little meat on the sometimes skinny bones of their dancefloor bumpers.

The best of this tiny sampling is the title track. Driven by a conga drum and fuzzed-bass combo that would make ESG blanch with envy, the song is hot sex turned audio, all building and building toward a pumping, glowing climax. (All the better to match up with a chorus that pleads, “Set your clocks back, baby, tonight/Because I'm here, we're gonna do this right.”) “Take It Away” throws all in on the rock/disco fusion, with fiery guitar cutting across a splashy programmed beat.

Granted, this EP is just a small taste of what these four can get up to when left in a studio together (the two new songs are padded out by a loping, groovy remix of an earlier MEN track). But if they are simply teasing our palate, they have accomplished that rarest of musical goals: leaving us salivating for more.

MEN Make Music http://www.menmakemusic.com

“Time”