If Billboard's list of number one dance hits in the USA is any indication, in 1999 the club and dance scene in North America was dominated by the likes of Cher, Madonna, Enrique Iglesias and "Funky Green Dogs." While lack of taste in North America is certainly not surprising, and while I wouldn't try to claim that Billboard charts are 100% accurate as a barometer of taste, the fact remains that many club-goers in the US were subjected to an awful lot of ordinary dance music.
On the other hand we have Europe, particularly England, France and Germany. While there isn't as much data on overall plays in Europe, historically musical movements (outside of hip hop) have started in Europe and moved across the pond some time later.. Basement Jaxx are featured on that 1999 list, but the style they helped create has taken much longer to arrive full force in North America. Similarly, Daft Punk scored a couple of massive singles that crossed the Atlantic in the mid-90s, but "popular" North American tastes remained focused on garbage like rap-rock and watered-down wanky hip hop. Meanwhile from the 90s on, the subject of this post was toiling away in France, and becoming fucking good in the process.
Monsieur Oizo
Oizo is a member of Ed Banger records, one of the more illustrious record labels in electronic music. Fellow artists include Uffie, Busy P and Justice... no lightweights around there, let me tell ya. For me, his greatest asset is his eclecticism...he is generally just weird as fuck, but he can just easily write a sick hip-hop influenced beat as a sound-system smashing club banger.
Remember how people in the US were listening to Whitney Houston in 1999? Well French clubs were rocking a Oizo track in that year called Flat Beat. I'd try and describe it but the attempt would be futile. It doesn't quite have the massive bass and frantic energy that more recent club hits have had, but listening to this track and realizing it came out ten years ago is a clear indicator of Oizo's influence and general forward thinking... legendary track.
Jumping ahead a few years, Oizo's latest album, Lamb's Anger, was released in November of 2008. The single, Positif, bears the unmistakable watermarks of Oizo; big buzzy synths, choppy breakdowns, and vocal samples by some hot-sounding French bird.
And my personal favourite Oizo track, and not just because of the name. Gay Dentists starts out choppy and abrasive as fuck, but the slow formation of a ridiculously danceable beat is well worth the wait. The drop took me by surprise the first time I heard it, and boy was it a pleasant surprise. Wait till about the 2:00 mark.
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