Charlotte Adigéry & Bolis Pupul - Topical Dancer

There’s a delicious quality to Charlotte Adigéry’s vocal when she’s dropping one of many - so, so many - witty lyrical asides across ‘Topical Dancer’. And for the girls that get it, the pinnacle of these lands in ‘Thank You’, a track in which the singer’s stream-of-consciousness delivery turns to regaling responses to unwanted (and assumed foolish) comments. “And you discovered me, right?” she casually drops. “You’re the Columbus to my America.” Of course, it’s all done atop a squelchy synth; both Charlotte and Bolis Pupul have long been favourites of Belgian pop pioneers Soulwax’s DEEWEE stable, and it’s clear throughout just why they’re kindred spirits. Across the record, to-the-point statements are matched impeccably in both intensity and tone by club-ready beats in a manner that gives their message the space to breathe, and immediacy to make it stick. There’s direct; “Go back to your country where you belong / Siri, can you tell me where I belong?” posits Charlotte in ‘Blenda’, repeating “I look like them, but not to them / I sound like you but not to you.” ‘Esperanto’ asks many a hypothetical: “Are you as offended when nobody’s watching?” ‘It Hit Me’ has Charlotte recalling her first cat-calling at 13. ‘Ceci n’est pas un cliché’ meanwhile has the pair playing with dance staples; its funky bass soundtracking a list of hackneyed lyrics, its chorus (“You’re as cold as ice / I wanna make you feel real nice”) both trite and impossibly catchy. ‘HAHA’ meanwhile uses the singer’s literal laugh as a glitchy, percussive sample to curious effect. To call ‘Topical Dancer’ pure fun feels to diminish the real sentiment behind the lyrics; to pigeonhole it as wholly political does down the infectiousness that runs through its core. Maybe it’ll just make Europe’s clubbers feel a little more righteous now they’re back on the dancefloor? Either way it’s a win.