Moustache (Half A Scissor)

brokebeat, the sound of this album reminds me a lot of Nintendo era action games and 80s action films. Drum machines, kettle drums, 80s synths, vocal samples, broken beats. This is an experimental album, though track 9 & 12 aren't too out there -- Oizo's last album included "Flat Beat" which was a crossover success due to a Levi's commercial. So he can be brought home to Mom & Dad, sometimes.

Apparently this album was an attempt to get away from standard song structure, Quentin Dupieux (Mr. Oizo) says "album format & track structure are totally demolished & crushed," Laurent Garnier who produced it and founded the label it's released on said the album was "unbearable, but it's a brilliant idea to release it!" I'm not sure I agree wit hall this -- it's still pretty standard beats, and significantly more melodic than some IDM I've heard. It's also a lot more lively and fun than a lot of stuff in the genre, though more restrained than crazy maximalist producers.

Picks: 7, 12, 14. FCC Clean.

-David Blackman (Wicked Child)

1) "This is computer music" vocal. Machine-gun pip-paps. Would make a good intro to a hard DnB electronica show. (0:41)
2) Bassy tones explode over clip-clap drums only to end in nearly total atonal arrhythmic drum/synth internal. (1:58)
3) High synth melody throughout, squelchy synth, clipped beats -- fairly melodic, but also repetitive. Cuts out at 2:18, comes back mostly unchanged at 2:30. (3:05)
4) Short brokebeat, music for an stakeout/chase. Lots of cymbals, drums. (1:09)
5) Starts as a simple beat heavy, bounce-your-head left to right while holding a pistol track, until a clipped female vocal and synths start to go totally nuts and it ends abruptly. (1:53)
6) Totally ominous -- satanic headmaster with a staff walking down the hall at midnight. Almost entirely bass + static. (1:06)
**7) Intro is same vocal sample as track 1. Boss stage! Get ready for major action! Building drums and a synth melody with occasional cheesy phantom-of-the-opera organ. Cuts at 2:00, into almost a jazz drum solo until you realize it's just a sample (2:45)
8) Speak-and-spell sounding intro. One synth sample throughout with puke-inducing distorted vocal. Boring. After 2:25 it's just noise. (2:45)
9) Very clipped beats. Just a slightly harder take on the sound of this album. (1:42)

10) Weirdest track, most broken samples/loops, clap beat, repeated interview-vocal. Great cut-up work @ 2:20, one cut per beat. Ends super abruptly. (3:15)
11) Squeaks, warbles, drum machine, static, vocal sample. Not a song. Unlistenable. (0:59)
**12) Distorted crunchy synth that is so very 80s, with a high trapped-in-the-funhouse-with-only-3-minutes-to-escape counterpoint. Album's single. (3:18)
13) Sounds like a corrupted MP3 or "cat /dev/random > /dev/dsp" for the dorks (0:15)
**14) Ominous beats, standard 80s territory, then jungle drums, then tech-house, then all together -- nearly danceable. Ends with a random piano note. (3:03)
15) Slowest, chillest track. Plodding synth with major echo/reverb. At 1:11 Pure feedback/X-Files, then crazy twitchy IDM. Then a horn melody. (2:11)
*16) 10 to 1 countdown, with get-ready-to-fight music that sounds like trance a few octaves lower than it's usually rendered. Another 80s chase track. Broken up by a great bassy wah-wah-wah sound. Countdown again at 2:00. One of the most listenable. (2:50)
17) Nearly silent until 0:12, even then, very quiet drums. 80s synth line. Then it's a total freakout of samples. Silent 1:55-3:02. Then the sounds of a mad scientist's lair, someone strangling an oscilloscope while beating a geiger counter to death. (5:27)