I wanted to begin sharing some of my perceptions about music that I have been listening to recently that has been particularly inspiring to me.

One track that never fails to compel me is Chab's "Closer To Me (Alex Neri Vocal Mix)". Note the vocals are by JD Davis, not Alex Neri. The track's slow build and highly syncopated rhythmic intro gives the listener so many choices in the dance moves they might choose to act upon, a choice I feel is basic to a good dance track. There is a sense of mechanism and power that emerges with the arpeggiated synth that cuts through at about 1 1/2 minutes and carries the entire song with its melodic line. The line itself is the hook of the song, threatening to veer downward in its melodic line but ultimately rising to the higher octave. It comes across as a statement of ultimate persistence and optimism to me. It's how I feel when I am unstoppable - I know that all I need to do it keep going, relentlessly, into what may appear to be darkness because what I know that what I will eventually find there is light.

The vocal elements are clear and to the point, layered in double-octave format, similar to the way we do our vocals. We took the cue on this from Eurythmics, whose layered vocal approach strongly inform our work. JD's higher octave vocal is lower in the first repetition of the verse, only to gain strength and intensity in the second, again, bringing home the point of ultimate release. All he wants is to be with this other person. It is his single desire.

The choruses abate into a gentle pad/organ-like rolling swirl or stereo-tremoloed that gently lowers the listeners intensity without being disturbed in any way. As the beat subsides, around 5 1/2 minutes, the gentle swirls are left in the clear, only to introduce another higher-register arpeggiation that is much more cyclical in nature, adding great tension when the original arpeggiated bassline comes back in, again, underscoring the cyclical nature of our experience.

The song, like our own "Don't Stop", explores that range of feeling which borders on obsession, that feeling of intense power and pleasure that emerges from an intense physical and emotional connection where the experiencer wants nothing but the object of its desire.

To close, the chorus is repeated once again in two repetitions, with the second repetition revealing JD's yearning just as before, with the arpeggiated bassline once again taking control and fading away back into the beat we started with.

It is no accident that many parts of this track sound like the Giorgio Moroder soundtrack to "American Gigolo". The arpeggiated bassline and rolling swirls were central to the production style between Morodor, Harold Faltermeyer, and Keith Forsey, but have been beautifully reintroduced into a more modern arrangement. Works like this thrill me because they underscore the fact that many of the foundational elements of disco, while over 30 years old, are still fundamental to cutting-edge dance music today. It also gives artists like me greater latitude to spread their disco-wings.