Past the obvious sheen of speedy nightcore and sugary early-00s dance pop associations, this track emerges skewed through a prism of noise and angst that sees soft and brooding, crunchy and cute play together in a wild and simple fantasy of sound. It comes from the hivemind of a collaboration between Crapface, location unknown, and Amy Axegale, fka ZEN, who is from Melbourne, Australia.
Smooth syncopated chords boop bubblesome in a pattern that continues safely throughout, but then there's this heavy twist, a smudge of darkness on this candy gloss, pouncing out from the pastel fog like a tiger when the chords grow and distort, baring teeth, with kicks pulsing in time below and savage snare hits popping above, filling those formerly playful tropical chords with dread and frustration. This noisy electro sludge, the hardcore edge going on here reminded us of the rabid 'Dog' by SebastiAn, whereas its pairing of conventional and unconventional feels very Mr Oizo — cradling and destroying sounds. These two sprang to mind almost immediately.
However, 'Skype' is of course neither, but perhaps exists for similar reasons as these French artists' music: A reaction to the clean-cut in sound, simultaneously exhibiting that emotions can exist in electronic music with this howling wordless disconnect from physicality. Similarly the song title, an ambiguous summoning of Skype as an experiential thing that can mean anything to anyone, exhibits an aphysical source of inspiration. And as the track dances away in its closing 30 seconds, hi-hats ticking with the beat, the synth wonky and bleary, you feel that the Skype call went to plan, and the song's dynamic swing between a contentment and something verging on rage, a burning internal struggle, is quelled for now at least.
This is an apparently one-off release courtesy of London-based entity Calm Records.
Also, the artwork for this track, some fantasy palace in some fantasy garden, is by visual artist beeple (human name: Mike Winkelmann). It's called ISOTOPE. His Tumblr showcases lots of art and it's all imaginative and grand.
Mr Oizo, oh Mr Oizo, it's Mr Oizo. I saw a tweet from Mr Oizo at some point in time before today (let's just say this one to be done with it) that said this Charli XCX collaboration called Hand In The Fire was going to drop sometime soon and well, yeah, it's today. It's arrived today, 14 days before Christmas, ho-ho-ho.
The headline and USP of this EP is the Charli XCX-featuring bit and it's what everyone's gone with:
Pitchfork: Mr. Oizo Teams With Charli XCX for "Hand in the Fire"
Stereogum: Mr Oizo – “Hand In The Fire” (Feat. Charli XCX)
Pigeons & Planes: LISTEN TO MR. OIZO AND CHARLI XCX’S “HAND IN THE FIRE”
The FADER: Mr. Oizo And Charli XCX Share "Hand In The Fire"
Idolator: Charli XCX Returns To Springy Electro-Pop On Mr. Oizo Collab “Hand In The Fire”: Listen
Beatport: HEAR MR. OIZO’S CURVEBALL COLLABORATION WITH CHARLI XCX, “HAND IN THE FIRE”
The 405: Charli XCX features on Mr Oizo track, 'Hand In The Fire'
NME: Charli XCX teams up with Mr Oizo – 'I was inspired by Ed Banger'
Paper: LISTEN TO MR. OIZO'S WARPED TROPI-LEANING TRACK FEATURING CHARLI XCX
DIY: CHARLI XCX IS WORKING WITH ED BANGER’S MR OIZO
FACT: Stream Charli XCX and Mr. Oizo’s ‘Hand In The Fire’
And so on and so forth in different languages on multiple sites and blogs around the world (one of the middle ones, The 405, I wrote that one). Oizo and Charli XCX, boom, ruling the world and whatever. It shows that MR OIZO can produce for pop, that's one thing that it shows, and very well at that, of course of course: bass booms and cold skeletal low-end melodies and skiffly swaying beat with orchestra hits exploding, raw tom rolls for extra flavour, plus the hook in FX'd vox wah-wahing in the appropriate places.
Mr Oizo has collaborated with singers before, twice on Lamb's Anger (2008): with Uffie on 'Steroids' and with Carmen Castro, whom Oizo calls "a mysterious person", on 'Two Takes It'; and more recently with Marilyn Manson on 'Solid', which scared and worried me but it was fun nonetheless. None of these, however, overshadowed a whole release, which is the case with the Charli XCX collaboration – three other tracks appear on the Hand In The Fire EP, one of which is an instrumental version of the Charli-featuring title track so what's up with that?
What is up with that? What is the actual problem here? Is there even a problem? Maybe, maybe there is. Like, the instrumental version, although it's a nice instrumental like I said a couple of paragraphs above, does not excite me a great deal, like it's definitely been made with a conscious effort of leaving space to putt a vocal on top, making it with a cyclical formula in pop song format. The actual song 'Hand In The Fire' feels weird: here's a different scenario: This is a Charli XCX track and then it's revealed that the producer is Mr Oizo, nice yeah, it's a catchy tune, jostling and slithering — somehow that feels cooler and more natural than this in its actual obvious collaboration state. Why?
Because the other two tracks on the EP are sooo Mr Oizo you'd be a fool to miss how typically Oizo-sounding they are, and how similar they are in feel and speed, which many publications indeed seem to have overlooked, drooling instead over the "curveball" (misfit???) collaboration itself because Give Pop A Chance and because Pageviews Mean Prizes and because Dat SEO.
I mean, there's 'A Rekurd', which with all its unrelenting repetition of the eponymous sample – "a record, a record, a record" – and mad sirens is an intense dance track, ending with a simple juggernaut of overdriven crunchy kicks and the vocal sample itself, filled throughout with familiar creeping atonal arpeggios. But sitting above this both actually in terms of track number on the EP and also in my esteem is 'Being Flat': yaaaaa! This one is nuts, perfectly nuts, wtf does nuts even mean, it just came out, I'm sorry. It's that blaring dissonant menacing groove that is so comfortable and yet so nerve-singeingly body-affecting that you can almost feel the tiniest hairs on your body vibrating with it.
It's those little ad-libs to the beat, a slicing hi-hat thrown into the pattern; it's that ambient soaring synth break providing liquid gentle oasis between the hard jittering notes of the second part and the delicious substantial bass patterns of the first half. It's the robust sounds in the beat, thumping and full of texture. It's the crowd noises in the background, which add depth and effuse the placebo effect of feeling like you're at an actual party.
When these two tracks finished, and the instrumental 'Hand In The Fire' began to play I paused it. I PAUSED IT. Now all I have in my head is the Charli XCX collab and I'm confused at why I don't like it all that much if it's in my head? I guess labelling things really does change your opinion even before you've sampled such things.
"The medium is in the message": in this instance the message is Charli XCX song, clearly that is the case. The medium, however, via or as part of a Mr Oizo release, loads it with meaning and expectations. Association kicks in and, being a human being, I cannot help but be influenced by how things are packaged; everyone's perception of something changes depending on its delivery. If you don't know Mr Oizo, then cool, Charli XCX is working with someone; do a little google, oh yeah, this Quentin Dupieux, he's done some cool stuff, he's pretty well known – therefore Charli is held in even higher esteem. But for those who know Mr Oizo, or know and like Mr Oizo's music rather, having a Charli XCX song delivered through his musical output feels jarring, even wrong.
This leads me to conclude that this song, this EP with its typical and more digestible Oizo sound outside of the title track, is meant for those who are not well acquainted with the French producer or his music. At the same time, it's sort of fan service because both these tracks do not exactly push new ground for Oizo, serving as a nostalgic vessel for pre-existing Oizo-lovers; indeed as of this current moment, 'Being Flat' has had more plays than 'Hand In The Fire', showing that fans will find their way to the morsel they like the most and play it maybe a few times cause they love it and they gotta show someone else, too. Oizo fans get to see Oizo tackle pop production, and he does it well – perhaps the reason why the instrumental version is also included.
Charli XCX fans, on the other hand, get to hear a new and unique somewhat Santigold-sounding song and then, hidden behind the cover story, there's these other tracks from the same producer, buzzing but not too abrasive and instantly addictive for those with an ounce of dance-leaning tendencies in their souls. Everyone's happy.
A second guest mix! Wow, what the H! What the F! I know. It's really cool. Like I said when I introduced Bawxxx for Guest Mix 001, a mix is a good way to not just show off a person's tastes but also their talents: mixes are kinda easy to do but difficult to master (like anything really). This next Guest Mix arrives courtesy of Japanese producer 99LETTERS, an evident aficionado of hard electro house and tech house. Of course, as producer, he creates music himself - and seemingly insatiably too, telling me that he has "make more music." Real name Takahiro Kinoshita, hailing from Osaka, Japan, 99LETTERS was first inspired by "techno and ghetto house," listing Boys Noize, Gesaffelstein, SCNTST, Hoshina Anniversary, Erol Alkan, Tiga ("...and more!") as current influences on his music.
Speaking of his music, there are a few tunes in this mix that are actually his. Yep, sure are. There's his breezy indie-dance-style remix of fellow Osaka-dwellers The Paellas' recent track 'Sugar', the crunch buzz of his original track 'Adios' as well as 'Gangurio' and its assault of bleeps, finishing with his remix of Gesaffelstein 'Pursuit' - a chopped-up, slow-techno tank of a track. Of course, there's lots of other things in this mix - from Daniel Avery to Erol Alkan, from Tiga to Canblaster: it's a long buzz-saw of heart-pumping techno and electro.
Yeah yeah I know it's been almost a week since this was released but I say to you: whatever.
After some more waiting, the new Mr Oizo EP is here. It's called Amicalement, which means something like "all the best" in French, and you can download it for free from Oizo's own freakishly-yet-wonderfully retro website, oizo3000.com. Yes, this picture is a screenshot of the site in action: humorous, practical, stylised. Kinda like Oizo's music.
If you're a fan of Oizo, you shouldn't be disappointed. Even if you're a fan of electro music, or dance music, you shouldn't be disappointed either. He seems to have moved further and further away from the avant-garde side of things when it comes to music, not necessarily steering clear of the madness of the so-called "unlistenable" Moustache (Half A Scissor) (Oizo's second album for those who don't know) but instead filtering it through a more conventional framework. Or so it seems to me anyway.
So yes, you still get things like the how-would-you-ever-predict-that pairing of Oizo and goth superstar Marilyn Manson with the not-for-the-self-conscious second track 'Solid' and its refrain, bluntly put in MM's deep speaking voice: "You look like shit when you dance". But it's set to a conventional house beat, albeit a fearsome one, locked in with gurgling distorted synth later in the track. I wrote more about it last week.
It's repetition instead of the lack of it that Oizo has recently used to whip his listeners into a frenzy. He's exchanged the spasmodic for the clockwork. Once he has a good synth melody going, it's the track that the entire song follows, adheres to. 'Unicat' first illustrates this, a gloopy cutting synth freaking out over a sparse funky bass and a meaty beat complete with 80s drum machine toms.
Personal favourite is the 3rd track, 'Waltz E More', there's more energy in repetition, a piercing analogue bleep sounding an alarm in a cyclical waltz-time soulful number, but with Oizo's fingerprints all over it, achingly tasty vocal samples etched into the minor melody. The EP finishes with more funk in 'Lovin'', an infectious bassline battling with muscly piano chords as chain of looped vocal samples lend yet more soul to his sound.
This is fantastic electro fun for all the family. Oizo has moulded something less abstract here, more conventional, more ear-friendly, swapping freak for funk but retaining the attitude that brought him up to this point. Go and download it for free.
Well this was a mega surprise. When I first saw the link to this news on Twitter the other day, I thought that it surely SURELY must be a joke. I mean, who could or would ever put Mr Oizo and Marilyn Manson together? They both make noisy music, sure, but other than that I was confused. I was already imagining M Manson singing a 'The Dope Show' style song alongside something like 'Gay Dentists'. I really didn't know what to expect.
In reality, the song - 'Solid' - features a rumblingly bass-heavy beat beset by frantic synths, which you would've heard from Mr Oizo before, if you are a fan, in songs like 'Positif' - the kind of song that gets everyone really worked up, pumped up, tripped out and losing their minds. In the right environment of course. Mid-set in a sweaty Paris club would be the perfect venue for this song. And what is MM's contribution? It comes in the form of a spoken vocal sample, played around with by Oizo of course, that simply says: "You look like shit when you dance".
Listen up.
It makes me feel kinda uneasy, for like the first minute, but then you really get into the beat and the sound of it, sorta sucked into that thundering bass as if it were made of molten Maoam or something. The synth totally creeps out, like an electrified version of the villain music used in silent films. It's dark, basically. And heartily electro. And I can see how it would be really easy to get crazy to this song. Except for the fact that the MM vocal sample would make me feel so self conscious that I wouldn't want to dance - what if I really DO look like shit when I dance? Do I look ok? Am I dressed like an idiot? Why am I even out? I give up.
But it's a fun song. In a sardonic way.
It comes from the upcoming Mr Oizo EP called Amicalement (it's like the French equivalent of the ubiquitous English sign-off "Best regards" or "Kind regards" or "All the best" or etc.) out 1st July. You can download it for free from his website, so get ready to do that on Monday!
Oh and if you're wondering how Mr Manson got involved with Mr Oizo, he's actually in Oizo's film Wrong Cops. Check www.wrongcops.com and MM's character is right at the start of the trailer that plays when you arrive. But then we have the mystery of how THAT happened...
It's always nice to hear a new Mr Oizo song. Last time we heard anything new from him, it wasn't actually anything new and was in fact a compilation called Unreleased Unfinished Unpleasant containing, well, unreleased and perhaps - it was he who said it - some unfinished stuff. Now, this one, 'Secam', is genuinely new. Proper new. New like a new pair of socks or pants. It's a feeling like no other when something so familiar, like underwear, takes on a new form, i.e. that of brand-new shop-bought items. And that's how I feel about this song. It's Oizo, but it's new yo.
BOY IS IT NOISY. IS IT EVER. Ya it sure is. But that is Mr Oizo. Yeah, sure, you could argue that this isn't the typical Oizo of yesteryear, the one who seemed to chop up circuitboards and blend synth notes themselves to get a near-unlistenable sound, something completely erratic and verging on the wtf-is-this-guy-doing vibe. Still interesting listening though wasn't it? But yeah you could say, "oh man he's changed this isn't monsieur oiseau dat i no :/" - but I'd just say whatever. Cause this is a nice song.
As ever, he seems to mix a very dark, aggressive feeling with feel-good funk - a very wrong sounding mix in theory, but one which in practice definitely works. This particular song, 'Secam', has a definite wobbly and slippery synth feel that soon gives way to a frenetic frenzy of synth stabs, chomping vocal samples, clashing razor-sharp hi-hats and fever-pitch bell sounds, a bit like those wind up teeth that clatter along, all to a ground-shaking beat that slaps and thuds its way through. It totally zaps you, going for an all out attack on your little ears. Unrelenting and loud with a funky edge. Yes, it is Mr Oizo.
This actually comes from Ed Rec Vol. X (expected 10th June), which celebrates ten years of Ed Banger Records, alongside other label friends of course, like Justice, Mr Flash and SebastiAn. And, um, you can actually stream it all here, on Electro News's SoundCloud.
btw I think 'Secam' is "séquentiel couleur à mémoire" (sequential colour with memory) - the first colour TV system first used in France (compare PAL and NTSC) cause I was wondering what it was. So there.
Today is just full of treats isn't it? First a new Cyril Hahn number, then lovely hip hop, and now: the news that Mr Oizo (aka Quentin Dupieux) has released some previously unreleased, and evidently unfinished and unpleasant tracks, on an album wistfully entitled Unreleased Unfinished Unpleasant. What's more, it's available as free download from www.oizo3000.com, "Mr Oizo's lazy website". Free download, no caps: just what the doctor ordered.
Old Quentin Dupieux has been something of mystery, everyone wondering: Just when the arse-ing hell is there going to be more Mr Oizo shiz, by Jove?! Well, he's been busy making films. That picture tells you enough. But if you would like to know more about the film, Wrong, which he showed at Sundance this year, here's an interview with the man himself.
So, about Unreleased Unfinished Unpleasant. It contains unreleased stuff from 2004 to 2012 (tracklisting on the second screenshot of his website below) and is, as you'd expect, typically Oizoian: electro house with ear-twisting sounds and funky melodies set over some seriously spiky, abrasive beats, best shown off on 'Tissu' whose paranoic, frantic synths could share a room with the nervous, space-invadery sounds on 'Hidolls'. Then you have the barely-a-song songs like 'Mositif' with the refrain "End of the world", you have, weird shoes-squeaking sounds of 'Gunzeon', the unexpected ghostly head-banger that is 'Coco', menacing big synth in the heart-pounding 'Flip Bat'... I could go on, but you get the idea: It's new Mr Oizo! Boogie on down to Oizo3000.com and get downloading if you know what's good for you.
To reiterate that tracklist for you it's...
1. Kylie
2. Duck Guts
3. Hidolls
4. Tissu
5. Mositif
6. Pepa & Pepa
7. Gunzeon
8. 143
9. Flip Bat
10. Coco
11. Moto44 (Crashed)
12. JC Dus
I haven't yet seen Drive, but if some of the music blasting out of the essences of the by-mouth reviews and praise of that film is anything to go by, it's safe to say that it'd be a good idea to go and see it. And of the music, the sound that seems to be in the air at the moment permeating the brain of anybody/everybody who went to see the film is the distinctly brilliant 'Nightcall' by Kavinsky.
Real name Vincent Belorgey, Kavinsky is one of the children of the Parisian electro house family, having toured with the likes of Daft Punk, Justice and The Rapture, delivering high energy tunes based on that 2005-7 fuzzy electronic aesthetic. And that's not everyone. Aside from being mates with one of my favourite French artists, Mr. Oizo, he's also called upon the talents of fellow electro-honeymooner Lovefoxxx (of CSS) to lend her lovely vocal stylings to the creeping cat of a track that is 'Nightcall'.
And what a creeping cat this track is. If Kavinsky here is trying to evoke a kind of night feeling, of the dark air and rushing blank road orange streetlights, the quiet and cold if it all, then he has done it very very well. The slow house beat whisks you away like an urban dreamtime rowboat into a kind of 80s alternate reality where everything resounds with a kind of computerised nostalgia. The altered machine-like voice offset against Lovefoxxx's vocals is the perfect contrast. All I can say is that I love the tempo and I love the feel. It's the kind of thing that suits night much more than morning, like I said. Like a creeping night cat. And this song, by the way, comes from Kavinsky's 7-song 2010 EP, Nightcall.
Past the obvious sheen of speedy nightcore and sugary early-00s dance pop associations, this track emerges skewed through a prism of noise and angst that sees soft and brooding, crunchy and cute play together in a wild and simple fantasy of sound. It comes from the hivemind of a collaboration between Crapface, location unknown, and Amy Axegale, fka ZEN, who is from Melbourne, Australia.
