Sugar and Ice

Don't write off Portland duo Glass Candy as simply an Italo-disco throwback. Aside from a few tracks, most of that genre is total dreck (see Strut's excruciating forthcoming comp if you don't believe me), while the recent tracks from Johnny Jewel and Ida No are almost bipolar: shiny and icy yet exuding an uncanny warmth. Glass Candy's 2007 B/E/A/T/B/O/X record for the Italians Do It Better label showed that the group could do jazzercise and Moroder synthpop as well as anyone.