Pacific Standard Time

Pacific Standard Time

You might guess that a band called Poolside is either made up of Midwest musicians who are California dreamin’ on such a winter’s day or bona fide Los Angelinos who don’t take their relaxed lifestyle for granted. Pacific Standard Time reveals it to be the latter (even though the introductory instrumental is titled “Tulsa”). The 2012 debut album from the nouveau disco duo of Jeffery Paradise (a party DJ who also played in the hardcore band The Calculators) and Filip Nikolic (formerly of IMA Robot and Junior Senior) really starts with “Next to You,” a laidback neon jam where cold synths and warm analog keyboards nicely contrast each other like an icy cocktail on a hot afternoon. The fetching falsettos on that one dissolve into aloof tenor whispers in “Why You Wanna,” a happy-hour groover with tropical percussion and a fretless bass best danced to outside, in bare feet, on the blue Astroturf of The Standard hotel in Hollywood. Although Poolside’s original tunes are all refreshing, their chilled-out cover of Neil Young’s “Harvest Moon” is an ingenious reworking.

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