*** Outta Control

OUTTA CONTROL

(Interhit)

As electronic as they wanna be, the Toronto-based threesome Outta Control adopt the highly polished gladness that has always marked the disco pop of Toronto. But theirs is a radically stripped-down version; it offers none of the costumery and the lushness that characterize even the Toronto branch of Eurobeat. From her hi-NRG remake of Joan Osborne's "One of Us" to her icy run through "Lonely Times," the group's singer, Kimberly Wetmore, simply says her say. She refuses to gild the lily. Swift jams like "Tonight It's Party Time" and "I Wanna Feel the Music" move on a diluted melody, leaving you feeling dry.

Most disco fans identify Toronto disco with the sultry impressionism of Tapps, the city's most hallowed disco group of the 1980s. Outta Control's basic workouts abolish the Tapps sound. Even their three Giorgio Moroder songs, "Together in Electric Dreams," "Take Control," and Donna Summer's "Our Love," discard the romance and lavishness of the originals, emphasizing the coolness of Moroder's electronics instead. Moroder's music was all heart; Outta Control just want to get excited. Sentimental lovers will hardly want to take this into their pillow room at night.

-- Michael Freedberg