The Juan MacLean

Known more for his coke-smoking exploits in Vice magazine than his robotic tenure in New Wave descendents Six Finger Satellite, The Juan MacLean walks a tenuous line between retro and futuristic on his debut full-length. The synthetic surfaces of "Shining Skinned Friend" shimmer like sweaty cyborg midriffs, while vocoder-rendered voices...

By Andy Beta

July 21, 2005

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Known more for his coke-smoking exploits in Vice magazine than his robotic tenure in New Wave descendents Six Finger Satellite, The Juan MacLean walks a tenuous line between retro and futuristic on his debut full-length. The synthetic surfaces of "Shining Skinned Friend" shimmer like sweaty cyborg midriffs, while vocoder-rendered voices à la Giorgio Moroder and Gary Numan pervade "Tito's Way." Closer "Dance with Me" is a diffuse, concupiscent come-on from a sylph lady-bot at 5:00 a.m. In the end, Less than Human draws more from tawdry disco of Studio 54 than its punk counterpart Mudd Club.

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