(06.07.06) Back in 1999 Analog Worms Attack hit me like a baseball bat on my gums, I was still listening to some hip-hop and that record deconstructed pretty much all the musical standards I knew at the time, plus there was the huge surprise hearing an album that was so distant from the huge success of the Flat Eric TV commercial. Moustache (Half A Scissor) is not as striking for me, but only because after a few years I’m used to extreme stuff; I think that an average F Com listener would be very unsettled instead.
This time Mr. Oizo gives his interpretation of disco music, and it’s like taking dusty old tapes of Studio 54 music, chopping them into little pieces and then reassemble them randomly. As several interludes reclaim, “this is computer muuuusic!” The result is a noisy hardcore version of Akufen music: intentional glitches everywhere, hiccupping beats, surface noise boosted to the maximum and still this messy demolished disco retains a shadow of rhythmical texture. You could almost dance to tracks like “Latex,” “Nurse Bob” and “Square Surf” (if only they would last more than 2-3 minutes), but you can only go nuts when you listen to screwballs such as “Berleef” or “Scum Hotel.” Moustache… is the disco/electro equivalent of Bogdan Razcynski or Venetian Snares, so be prepared for catchy bouncing basslines hindered by sudden interruptions, out of tempo beats and screeching samples. There’s a tune that stands out on all this oddity, and it’s the minimal electro-techno stomper “Stunt,” produced with Sebastian Tellier: a kick, a snare, the most baroque synth melody you can imagine and a thick layer of surface noise smearing everything. Moustache… –it’s a forty minute long floor-clearer, it would be an excellent death blow to disco and electro revival, but I fear that the musical market will be continuously submerged by silly compilations that recycle the same tunes.
Moustache (Half A Scissor) is out now on F Communication. (Buy it at Amazon.com)
