Ordinary People: “Disco!” – a layered pastiche of solid techno beats and “retro-futuristic” sounds

Ordinary People (Sergey Bezhinets) was founded in 2014 to experiment with techno, drum and bass, jazz, industrial, ambient and symphonic music. Ordinary People has released 17 albums since then. The band incorporates guitars, synthesizers, drum machines and electronic drums as primary instruments.

Being the brainchild of Sergey Bezhinets, the new album “Disco!” has no filler, no fat, just tasty techno grooves where the funk is as much in the spaces as in the sounds. The bits and beats themselves are varied and always interesting, with many different timbral and tonal qualities creating multi-hued dots and smears within the arrangements.

Although restricted to a driving 4-on-the-floor pulse, the overlying poly-rhythms explore a wide assortment of variations on basic dance floor bump. All chin stroking aside, Ordinary People manages to stake out new dance floor territory, while never neglecting the needs of the feet or posterior.

Though the creator of several significant contributions to techno, ambient, and electronic music in general during the last two years, Ordinary People has never really taken the time to rest on his proverbial laurels. His earlier works showcased his fluid mastery of sounds, effects processors, and a drum machine, in a rapid-fire slew of 17 albums.

With “Disco!”, Ordinary People essentially redefines his role taking on a whole new dimension. Here, he produces different loops, beats, phrases, rhythms and sounds, which are as much from the future as they are from the past, and pieces them together into a musical jigsaw puzzle.

The result is a mind-boggling, layered pastiche of solid techno beats and “retro-futuristic” sounds across 8 tracks. Ordinary People skillfully infuses just enough “melody” and warm tones to round out the mix from being too experimental – though on some songs, like “Chantecler Dance” and “Suspicion”, he pushes that boundary a little bit further.

Ordinary People, though surrounded by machines and software, has proven that yes, there is a human behind the so-called machine-music–techno has made yet another step forward. Yet again, he changes the entire construct by which we interpret dance music. I know that sounds like pompous crap, but it’s true.

The majority of listeners will agree that this “Disco!” is perhaps one of the best examples of wickedly detailed and technically rich electronic music out there. If that is a mouth-full, it should be. Ordinary People has defined the amazingly intricate form of techno that weaves clever beats into unusual and unexpected sounds to create a masterpiece of rhythmic movement and audio ecstasy. It’s just that good!

From the beginning, on the title track, Ordinary People builds with multiple climaxes and movements. He pulls together elevations of sounds that on the surface appear to be beats from your typical computer-driven tracks, but upon further examination, you will note that the sounds are multiple layers of pops, squeaks and rhythms that have been so intricately woven, they start and stop in a beautiful fabric of listening pleasure! Essential tracks – “Catch The Rainbow”, “Automatic” and “Give Me All Your Money”.