- Ivan Smagghe and Tim Paris definitely take their sweet time releasing music as It's A Fine Line. Their first single, "Woman (A Makhnovshchina Repossession)," was released in 2008 as part of the History Clock disco edits, and the slow-cresting track was easily the series standout. But after a follow-up EP in 2010, there wasn't a peep from the duo.
Now comes their first album as It's A Fine Line. The opening track, "Cardiogram," reminds you that Smagghe and Paris are still unhurried. "Don't rush it / Let it riff," a voice wheezes, and only when another distorted voice croaks, "Pump it," does the track's inertia break. "In Slower Motion" actually moves a bit faster, but maintains a playful, cosmic bounce. "Vaguement Froid" revels in its syrupy pacing.
Smagghe and Paris have truth in their titles. "Greasier" is just that, a bobbing, rockabilly throb that throws live percussion into their analog sounds, recalling the crazed, expansive jams on old DFA remixes. Tracks like "Disco Cluster" and "1880" are a tad too close to space disco homage. The scraped guitar and other small noises around the post-punk beat of "Titre Original" fare better.
It's A Fine Line do a fair imitation of Suicide's grimy electronics, to best effect on the slow sleaze of "Redelivered." They even recruit Franz Ferdinand's Alex Kapranos, who does an Iggy Pop impersonation that nails both the menacing croak and falsetto as he utters, "I hear your history / Not in words / But the delivery." It's A Fine Line aren't escaping said history, but reconstituting with attitude. They expertly replicate the kind of chilly components that buzzed and whirred on old '80s comps like Dirty Space Disco and The Minimal Wave Tapes. If It's A Fine Line hadn't taken six years to appear, perhaps it would have fared better back in 2010.
Tracklist01. Cardiogram feat. Olivia de Lanzac
02. In Slower Motion
03. Greasier
04. Redelivered feat. Alex Kapranos
05. Disco Cluster
06. Titre Original
07. Vaguement Froid
08. The Delivery
09. 1880
10. Blinkar Reprise
11. Weekend Boom Boom feat C.A.R.