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Video Premiere: See Escort’s Disco-licious ‘Why Oh Why’

Escort / Photo by Jody Kivort

Escort, like most of its ’70s forebears aside from exceptions like Chic and Philly soul, began as a geeky studio creation. But Brooklyn’s premier 21st-century disco orchestra now also routinely wows audiences as a holy-crap 17-piece live band. That’s the Escort we see in the new video for “Why Oh Why,” from the Adeline Michèle-fronted group’s wonderful self-titled LP (a SPIN Essentials selection, one of our 25 Winter Albums That You Gotta Hear, and, just for good measure, one of 2011’s Best Dance Albums).

Despite Escort co-founders Dan Balis and Eugene Cho’s painstaking retro-accuracy, this lusty romantic entreaty functions seamlessly as big-hearted 21st-century dance-pop, somewhere within smoke-machine distance of Robyn, Annie, or, given Top 40’s ongoing club tilt, even today’s gossip-friendly chart divas. The performance-based video by Marisol Baltierra gives a detailed, stylish look at how Escort brings its party to life in concert, from Michèle’s stage-dominating star turn to some very happy audience members. See? You loved disco all along.