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​Dance Spirit's 'The Sun Also Rises' LP is Somewhere between Pink Floyd and Deep House

Dare we call it Dark Side of the Dancefloor?

Dance Spirit, the duo of Robotech Reagan and Chris Mohn, are fast on the come-up as the release of their debut album "The Sun Also Rises" approaches on Audiofly's Supernature label. Although the record is set to be their first major splash as a duo, their story goes back some time. "We met eight years ago in San Diego," explains Reagan. "We used to do street promotions, we were basically flyer boys down in Pacific Beach where nobody cared about electronic music and would bat flyers out of your hands. We were martyrs for the scene down there!"

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Although Dance Spirit have settled in Los Angeles now, their ties to the San Diego scene are strong. "Over the last few years, Jon Dadon and the Lovelife crew started throwing great parties down there," explains Reagan. "It's fostered a whole new scene. Then the whole Desert Hearts crew popped up. Everything has this more accessible, easy-listening, but still intelligent feel to it."

The prevalent aesthetic of the San Diego scene is centered in deeper house and more minimal tech, elements that Dance Spirit whirled into a live environment in recording their album. "We went into the studio at the end of 2012 looking to write real songs, not club tracks," explains Mohn. "The first track we made was 'Waiting in the Light.' We sent that to Luca from Audiofly and he immediately asked for an album."

Some would be daunted by the challenge of a full album, but Dance Spirit snatched the opportunity. Chris explains, "He saw something that maybe we hadn't, but we're very conceptual artists, so it's almost easier for us to make an album than it is to make a single. We played a lot of the instruments on the record - Guitars, drums, keyboards…And we were listening to a lot of Pink Floyd."

The influence of Audiofly's Luca Saporito extends to Dance Spirit's performances. "We do a live set when we play," says Chris. "That was a Luca call. Audiofly are the first ones to take us in and nurture us as artists and they really encouraged us to do live-only sets. The awesome thing about the live set for us is that, we're basically studio rats and we're always creating new grooves and beats. Now nothing goes to waste because we can break everything down and build it back up live. That's has helped us make our tracks more dancefloor focused and dynamic when we're performing live."

Having just played Minus Zero and with a Lightning in a Bottle gig on the horizon, Dance Spirit look set to break out after a long period of incubation in California's southland. Check the continuous mix of "The Sun Also Rises" above and enter the dark side of the dancefloor.

Find Dance Spirit on Facebook // SoundCloud

Jemayel Khawaja is Managing Editor of THUMP - @JemayelK