[Turbo]

Azari & III began their career with two extraordinary singles, “Hungry for the Power” and “Reckless (With Your Love),” both ultramodern updates of timeless vocal house motifs that hooked pretty much everyone who heard them. Whether they like it or not, these tracks are going to loom large over everything they do, and it’s difficult to look at Indigo, the duo’s first release for Turbo Recordings, without taking them into consideration. The 12″ recalls these early releases in mood, but deconstructs their widescreen vision into something trackier, and in places, more formulaic.

The title track sticks a sinister, driving bass line atop a rattling, classically Chicagoan rhythmic structure, highlighted by some fantastically slippery hi-hats. Vocalist Starving Yet Full’s familiar soaring wail is relegated to “ohhhs” and “yeaaahs,” which is the biggest puzzler here, aside from the inclusion of an acapella of those same “ohhhs” and “yeaaahs.” Replete with ravey synth stabs, a classicist organ melody, and sumptuous, icy pads, “Indigo” certainly isn’t lacking in character but it does feel pedestrian when SYF is out of the picture. When he isn’t, the track sounds like a dub version of a more anthemic track, an epic that could have been. Oddly enough, the 12″ also comes with a dub version that’s more an alternate mix: its melody is a bit more central and obvious, adorned with some acidic stabs, and paired with vocals that are more spaced out. It’s an acceptable, albeit less visceral, substitute for its parent version. Finally, “The Worker” is a straightforward acid-tinged arpeggio chugger, which, although executed well, is not the freshest idea in 2010. It’s a little worrisome that the duo’s flamboyance is being compromised in favor of trackier fare, and its inclusion feels like pandering to the label’s aesthetic. Azari & III aren’t totally slumping with this release, and at least that defining air of nocturnal danger remains apparent. Yet it fails to reach the heights of their first two singles, largely because it sounds too safe, too calculated. Here’s hoping they let loose for the next one.