INTRODUCING: Amateur Dance

Amateur Dance is Joseph Cookson, a 20-year-old from Melbourne who makes deep house jams, betraying a nostalgia for the unremembered 90s. His formula is simple but effective – juxtaposing spare melodies and light-handed production with the intimate words of total strangers. One woman admits, “I can’t produce… I just – I can’t”, and entreats you directly: “I don’t get it, but I’m grateful, and I want you to know how grateful”. Another demurs with a self-conscious giggle, “My life’s not that interesting”. Cookson executes these songs with a youthful earnestness and unabashed referentiality that’s pretty hard not to like.

The first Amateur Dance single, ‘what i had 2 do’ was a stunner, pairing Death Cab for Cutie with the ranting of bodybuilder CT Fletcher. With follow up EP keep it up receiving some positive attention overseas, Cookson has signed to October Records, where he’s kind of an odd fit on a roster of more ‘saleable’ acts – from the maximalist Afrobeat of Ribongia to the insipid white girl RnB of Elizabeth Rose and Vanessa Elisha.

Cookson’s first release with October Records, the Talking About Yourself EP, is another solid work – though, in keeping with the theme of self-effacement, the tracks have names like ‘Beginner’s Luck’ and ‘Room for Improvement’. Taking a populist route on the title track, Cookson samples an interview with that archetype of humility, Aubrey Drake Graham. The EP keeps on hitting the pleasure centres, moving to a young woman murmuring breathless endearments on ‘Room for Improvement’ and finishing up with the touching and strident prescriptions of ‘Advocate for Love’.

The chief risk for Amateur Dance is that if he keeps on flogging this recipe, his music could start to feel formulaic – calculated, even. Cookson’s obviously got a good ear; I just hope he broadens the range a bit in time for the release of a debut full-length.

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