I have to admit something. When I first heard Holy Ghost!’s Hold On a few years ago (on a Cut Copy mixtape), I honestly thought it was some obscure early-80s electro-garage-pop nugget that I’d somehow missed – something from the glorious time of The Tom Tom Club and Level 42 and Yaz. Having been a DJ and music fan for a long time, I maybe should have known better. But the heyday of dance music was so vast and rich and varied – and I’m no archival authority compared to some of my friends. I’m always discovering ‘new’ classics, endlessly astonished by the still-revolutionary sounds on one thrilling record after another. So I didn’t think twice.

But then I found out this ‘classic’ was produced by two kids (Alex Frankel and Nick Hillhiser) on DFA. So the joke was on me. But if being wrong means being smacked in the head by new music this good, I’ll take it.

Hold On nails the simultaneous innocence and sonic sophistication of that primal era – while a hundred other wannabes seem to think that sounding ‘80s’ is simply a matter of cheap keyboards. The rocking disco beat and shimmering strings and keys are spot-on, while the buzzing, threatening analogue bassline perfectly complements the urban grit and weary determination of the lyrics. White soul at its best! No wonder none other than David Mancuso, still playing parties at The Loft 40 years after basically inventing the art of DJing, gave it play.

Holy Ghost!’s self-titled debut album more than lives up to the promise of that initial peak. These guys are definitely the real deal, ambitiously melding the best of several dance-pop epochs with an up-to-date eclectic approach. And they’ve evolved an unashamedly slick and cosmopolitan sound that really stands out on today’s rough-and-ready, minimalist scene.

The album’s opener, Do It Again, shows right away it’s not all about the early ‘80s. A mid-tempo indie-funk jam that stomps along with popping bass and a sing-along chorus while emitting spacey electro effects, it’s a clever pastiche of a Happy Mondays club mix circa 1990s Hallelujah. (It’s worth noting the Mondays had a tune called Holy Ghost on that EP – but apparently this band’s name is derived from Memphis soul legends The Bar-Kays.)

A couple of tracks follow with breezy electro-pop in a Cut Copy-type vein. It’s quality stuff, but doesn’t really prepare you for the highs to come. On first listen, I was ready for a letdown. But then Say My Name, with its luscious housey keyboards, driving melody and confident songwriting drama, starts taking us into the essence of the album. It also displays some of the differences between Holy Ghost! and their peers.

Though I love the Cutters, their music flickers back and forth between transcendent and a bit shallow. By comparison, Holy Ghost! works a somewhat earthier vein – as I said, they got soul (true to their name), especially for a couple of white boys from the Upper West Side of Manhattan. And while labelmates The Rapture make a truly wonderful racket, Holy Ghost! goes in the other direction, impressively achieving the layered arrangements and suave sheen of the best soulful British dance pop like Level 42 and Joe Jackson’s Night and Day.

Jam For Jerry continues in a similar groove, but with a nod to New Order’s epic new-wave freestyle à la State of the Nation and Perfect Kiss. Every other band these days tries to sound like the mighty Sumner & co, and for good reason: they achieved perfection (if you ask me, anyway). But Holy Ghost! get it mostly right; no hollow mockery, it’s an organic tribute that daringly runs with the potential of that brilliant pantheon. A killer instrumental coda transforms into a spacey electro jam with layers of glittering synths – imagine that Underworld had remixed Perfect Kiss.

By the time Hold On is up at the halfway point, this album is destined for serious rotation. From that climax, it’s one good, satisfying tune after another, like being in a dance-pop candy store, with bold stylistic choices and brilliant little touches all over. Frankel’s falsetto on It’s Not Over shows why I classify Holy Ghost as ‘soulful’ despite the indie format. Look, he’s no Raphael Saadiq, nor even James Blake, but he goes for it, takes chances and sounds like he’s having fun. In a time of bands that are too cool to be sincere or emote, that’s pretty refreshing. And sure it’s a bit corny at times – but so is all the good stuff from back in the day. Slow Motion starts out with a melodramatic accapella chorus (a bit Latin freestyle, a bit Depeche Mode) that’s as over the top as it is devoid of irony. But it works. I can’t imagine many other bands pulling it off.

The album wraps up with two more stellar jams. Static on the Wire, released as a single last year, is possibly better than Hold On. With a cantering disco groove blessed with achingly melodic keyboards and a sunny hook, it sounds absurdly like the young Paul Oakenfold had produced a comeback album for Hall & Oates in 1990 instead of Pills ‘n’ Thrills and Bellyaches.

Some Children, the closer, is simply astonishing. A grimy mid-tempo funk track is lifted by an angelic chorus – including Michael McDonald! Yes, that Michael McDonald, who graced the The Doobie Brothers and Steely Dan with his unmistakably raspy blue-eyed-soul vocals in the 70s before fizzing out with a bunch of insipid chart hits in the 80s. Michael McDonald on a DFA record – maybe that’s the musical equivalent of a previously washed-up Travolta electrifying a Tarantino film? We’re coming full circle. Who knows what it all means, but it sure as hell sounds good.