THE ONES - THE ONES


The Ones self-titled album is a gloriously colorful homage to the multi-talented group's legacy as influential pioneers in New York's underground nightclub, music and fashion scenes. Melding influences from Andy Warhol/Factory art-trash celebrity culture and avant-garde "No-Wave" experimentation, Bowie's twisted glam androgyny, Kiss' outlandish showmanship, The Clash's post-punk aggression, Kraftwerk's visionary electronic soundscapes, Moroder and Cerrone's throbbing disco pulses, Visage's new romantic theatrics and Freddie Mercury's flamboyant charisma, The Ones' ultramodern kaleidoscope of styles and sounds celebrates plastic pop culture, high fashion, and pleasureful indulgence that connects with the misfit, outsider, freak and counter-culture revolutionary in us all.

Kicking it off with "NYC Jungle" a downtempo urban affair, The Ones present themselves as a modern day Grace Jones in the industrial landscape and paint a vivid portrait of New York's seedy underbelly after-hours. The uncompromising and hard-edged "Ultramodern" follows finding the group laying uptown boogie rap over gritty grime-core and bumpty house backbeats before diving into a vintage NYC-electro styled chorus. But it's the furious "I Feel Upside Down" - a sweltering, 80s post-punk-inspired rocker bursting at the seams with searing political undertones, thrashing electric guitar and bass-heavy beats - that showcases the group at their most caustic, kicking against the pricks and flexing their lyrical muscle and musical dexterity.

Following a brief detour into Prince-esque funk abstraction on "Hello Hello", The Ones deliver a knock-out punch with "Blast", "Picture Perfect" and the narcotic odyssey "Lost" (a hypnotic journey through chunky breakbeats and lush electronic chords where man, machine and space become one). These tracks inject the album with ample slices of slinky Kraftwerk-inspired artificial syncopation and contemporary electro ingenuity a la Trentemoller, Daft Punk, Booka Shade and Tiga.

And if that were not diverse enough, the trio switch things up by dropping the uplifting and melodic "When We Get Together" (an inspirational deep house scorcher about love, peace and unity recalling Sylvester, Ten City and early Bronski Beat) before closing with the nostalgic disco ball reflection "Thinking Of You".

The Ones take you on a non-stop joyride through their sprawling metropolis - a neon-daubed urbana where all rules, preconceptions and ideologies are turned upside down. Masterfully mining everything from disco, house, punk, electro, hip hop, dub, synth-pop, funk and rock with a refreshing originality, they deliver a dynamic soundtrack steeped in their rich musical past while fearlessly exploring the limitless possibilities of the future.

Released on cutting-edge, New York-based imprint A Touch Of Class Recordings (whose distinguished catalog includes Scissor Sisters' early singles "Comfortably Numb" and "Filthy/Gorgeous", Waldorf "You're My Disco" and Xavier "Give Me The Night"), the impressive sonic collage includes production and mixes by A Touch Of Class (a.k.a. Oliver Stumm and Dominique Clausen), Scissor Sisters, The Rapture, Dimitry (Deee-lite) and Mantronik, and a bonus "remix" CD with remixes, extended versions, dubs and previously unreleased non-album tracks