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A mark of a good CD is the fact that a potentially salacious or marketable backstory doesn’t get in the way of the music’s intended purpose. 2009’s Dance Mother LP, by Brookyn duo Telepathe, is by all accounts a icy testament to synth pop’s ability to make a person dance. Songs like “So Fine” and “Chrome’s On It” do a nice job at mixing Ladytron detachment with Santigold hyperstyle to make a perfect soundtrack for someone to grope someone else on a darkened dance floor. This is a compliment. 

What the average fan might not know, however, is that Telepathe’s members, Busy Gangnes and Melissa Livaudais, used to be an item. Their nonchalance at this fact haven’t given them as much purchase in the queer press as one might expect (one superior interview notwithstanding,) but finding out a band’s sexuality through a casual sentence in a Pitchfork review carries its own kind of visibility too. 

Though I think that the mainstream media usually gets excited about bands with histories like Telepathes’, it’s also nice that their disc was largely reviewed on its own merit. I hope you check it out, and enjoy.