Cosmic John Carpenter disco is the only way I can describe In Flagrantis sound, which creates a feeling of floating in an infinite galaxy full of beautiful naked femaliens with golden ray guns. The duo from New York/ Italy (Sasha Srnobrnja & Alex Goor) blends their American and European influences into hyper sexual modern disco with a 70's/80's mood, while still being influenced by funk / dub and electro. They've been producing music since they both met in Basel and moved to New York in the early 90's, later founding the Codek Records label which now have offices in New York + Switzerland and release consistent mixes and EPs along with self produced music videos and video art for their performances.
Unfortunately only half of the duo played at this weird but perfect edition of Pop Kult, a monthly disco party held in the Gladstone Hotel’s ballroom. The entire building, built in the late 1800’s, is gorgeous but especially the ballroom complete with exposed brick, dim sexy mood lighting and a spacious back room with lots of mod furniture and lighting. The only downfall of this venue is how old it is, which makes air conditioning a problem when the party gets packed. Fortunately this was one of the less sweaty editions of Pop Kult.
The night started off slow and I was worried it wasn't going to fill, but of course in any big city style everyone arrived late and the party lasted well through last call. Brandon Sek opened the night with a slow but well energized set on a deep and sexy tip while visuals of hot eastern european girls ferociously making out, 80s aerobics instructors doing risqué stretches and technicolour lasers projected behind the dj booth by the other half of In Flagranti.
The cool thing about the consistent vibe of this party is how responsive the crowd always is on the dance floor, which is filled with a great mix of your typical west end hipsters but also financial district boys letting their ties loose, random old couples, even a dude dressed in all pink bicycle gear dancing like someone might have slipped something in his beer.
As the night went on the DJs started to pick up the pace, churning out disco classics from the 70's and crowd pleasers like Todd Terjes Inspector Norse, and at times SUPER dark disco that could’ve gotten away with being played at a techno party. Hearing a set that was mostly un identifiable but still managed to sound familiar was super refreshing especially in a time where dance music gets more bastardized every day.
Besides the normal expected mix ups like girls who are too drunk, long line ups for drinks, the entire night was perfect and proved disco hasn’t died and can keep a party going just as well as hip hop or dubstep if executed as well as In Flagranti.
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