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I remember Glass Candy as a word of mouth Portland phenomenon, shortly before every local scene's word of mouth was self published to all corners of the globe. The band was then offering the sort of severely damaged post-punk that was ascendant in this decade's early years. Singer Ida No was rumored to be a sort of female Iggy Pop figure, which demented demos with names like "Brittle Women" seemed to support. Now that the band has re-emerged on my personal radar as a killer neo-disco duo, it's hard not to be dumbstruck by the drastic makeover. Whether the transmogrification was cynically deliberate or the result of a band finally following their muse, I can't say, but the artistic quality of the new material makes the switch hard to fault.
Perhaps in an effort to make me stop heaping disproportionate praise on their sister band, Chromatics, Glass Candy has been providing an unending stream of free download tracks on their MySpace page. The best yet to fall from this constant assembly line is the sleek, "Digital Versicolor." The Moroder throb that's been the center of Johnny Jewel's production for all their recent track is the more polished here, Ida No's adopted downtown cool less affected. Lyrically, it could be a Sesame Street track identifying various hues, but damn if it doesn't make those crayon varieties sound ridiculously cool.