J.D. Samson cuts an enigmatic figure. Her cropped locks and delicate features give her a model-esque androgyny, yet she wears more moustache than the average Hong Kong man. And while she makes head-bopping electro-pop music, its politically rousing lyrics encourage discourse through dance.
Samson is best known as a member of the electro-clash outfit Le Tigre, whose feminist, pro-LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) lyrics made them a beacon of the riot grrl movement a decade ago. She's also frontwoman of dance-pop group MEN, a band and performance collective which collaborates with writers, artists and musicians from Brooklyn's art-punk scene. The music is sleek, electronic pop underpinned by disco beats and rippling synths, while lyrics dance around topical issues of liberty and what Samson calls 'identity and gender politics'.
They may make candy electro music, but MEN come with an unexpectedly radical manifesto: pro-feminism, pro-identity, pro-being as weird (or not) as you want to be.
'I see what we make as a reality check - and sometimes it's a good reality to understand,' Samson says. 'As a project, we began with a political, conceptual idea of having a place for people to ... discuss and analyse and be intellectual through dance music. As time has gone on we've become more like a real band because touring has forced me to leave some of the visual elements at home - [for example] we've played in museums where we've had the budget to create a set and be able to bring in dancers and instrumentalists.
'Ever since Le Tigre, we've known what we want to get across in dance. We're interested in particular conversations about gender and about our bodies. We're really interested in how we are queer, and what makes us queer. We want to get this across through dance music, within a community who feel safe in being vulnerable with each other.'
It's therefore appropriate that MEN's full-length debut is titled Talk About Body. Released last February on Los Angeles indie label IAMSound, the record is dance music with a mission and deals with topics such as getting too old for clubbing, how others see your body, gay couples adopting, and governments profiting from war.