HEALTH : "Disco4: Part II "

HEALTH is back with another collaborative album, the first part of this somehow flew under the radar here or I figured it to be a remix album so did not give it much thought. The choice of collaborators normally draws from the right of center names in heavy adjacent hipster electro you might expect. These kids are cool so they are not going to have guys like Slipknot or Motionless in White on their shit. Though Lamb of God made the cut, however Randy did hang out with Pigface so he has some industrial cred there. First up is Poppy. I like her, and perhaps if these guys take her serious then it will inspire others to as well. It blends some cool atmosphere as her singing voice matures and she stays in a more subdued croon for this one. This proves to be a very effective partnership. 

Reznor has taken the band out before as an opening act, so a Nine Inch Nails meet up makes sense. It feels more like a NIN song than a HEALTH song. He is without a doubt the name that holds the most weight here. I am sure they were like sure we will just be the back up band here do your thing man. They dip into the SoundCloud world with serial collaborators Ada Rook of Black Dresses and rapper PlayThatBoiZay . Seems pretty obvious why these kids are on SoundCloud and not on the level of even a Poppy as the track is not as inspired as the first two songs. Though a big name is not everything as the more effective song with Maenad Veyl proves. It flows much better. I like Lamb of God's "Sacrament" album they seem like lowest common denominator Pantera wanna bees most of the time , but  the fusion of the two bands works more often than not for "COLD BLOOD" ,  The HEALTH side of the equation certainly makes things more interesting.   

There are instances on this album where the band is able to lift up the other artist to their level as can be heard on "AD 1000" as I normally do not like the Body. Home boy's scream sounds like a strangled bird half the time and for all their artistic embellishments it still feels like noise. Here they just provide a rougher shade of gray that is mixed in such a way to not spotlight the abrasive elements that normally rub me the wrong way. They are joined by Ho99o9 and Canadian rapper Backxwash on "Gnostic Flesh /  Mortal Hell". Both of these guests I have found their respective careers to be less than impressive, so it is once again more of a a feat that HEALTH continues to make artists like these that are stripped of their individual  hype palatable with the end result being something that sounds like an angry Massive Attack.  "The Joy of Sect" teams them up with Street Sects and is not surprisingly the best song of the album. I normally just prefer when they have Jake singing , since the androgynous coo of his voice is more interesting than what the average rock approach to singing brings to the table, but on this song the voices work in  equal measure. 

They delve back down into the world of Soundcloud bed room hipsters by bringing Ekkstacy on board, which while interesting that they have their ears to this scene, these sort of artists tend to not have a great deal to bring to the able. Ekkstacy just kinda of mumbles like the disgruntled teenager he is. HEALTH however pulls their weight and more despite the boorish mumbles. Surprised they are going as far in the pop direction to work with the Neighborhood, but it works here. I have always liked the Neighborhood, though they occupy the same strange place in my head that Chrvhces and Taylor Swift does, almost a guilty pleasure , but talent enough to not be. It should cbe no surprise that the track with Perturbator has one of the album's best grooves, with perhaps NIN coming in 2nd place in that regard. Ironically the last song the band proves that perhaps they are best left to their own devices as "These Dasy" works just fine on it's own two feet. I will give this one a 9.5 as some of the Soundcloud moments could have been dialed back and left the focus on the song to the professionals.