One Track Mind

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

[ download ]

This past Tuesday, San Francisco quintet Sugar and Gold released their ¡AYA! EP, a four track (plus one instrumental remix) effort timed to coincide with an extensive national tour. The band has already shared the stage with Of Montreal, with whom the band shares a penchant for 1970s inspired showmanship. Sugar and Gold fully embrace that era and its druggy, disco lifestyle–not just with their vintage sounding synthesizers but with their whole glittery, shimmering, tawdry ethos. Their performances are already notorious for their choreographed dance moves and their over the top, androgyne flamboyance, but we’ve come to expect nothing less from the city by the Bay.

Originally recorded by German Europop vocalist Fancy in 1984, “Slice Me Nice” in its original format is a perplexingly odd synth-pop tune with a hook that is strangely unshakeable. While the original has its charm (it was a top 15 single in four European countries), it’s safe to say that Sugar and Gold make some significant structural improvements throughout. All of the lyrics–including the bewildering verse of “I’m like a cake that wants to be baked / I’m like a pie made for hungry guys… It’s time for action, baby, cut me in two / Slice me nice”–are thankfully intact, but the synths here are dreamier and more cutting. While this version of “Slice Me Nice” is certainly no revelation, it is funky and fun; my guess is that Sugar and Gold couldn’t hope for two sexier adjectives.