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Product Description
Review
French-born Vitalic, aka Pascal Arbez, first illuminated the world’s dance floors in 2005 with his debut OK Cowboy, an album so corking it made recent offerings from the likes of forebears Daft Punk look very limp indeed. Causing disco tremors all round with astounding singles such as Poney, the wall-dismantling La Rock and carving out the inside of skulls with My Friend Dario, it was one of the albums of the year, if not the decade, placing Pascal in a Gallic disco relay between the Dafts and the then-emerging Justice.
Four years being deemed quite a while in disco terms, Vitalic has spent that time wisely inventing an album that is at least OK Cowboy’s equal. Flashmob delights in every way imaginable, showing that there are still legs in Gallic boogie; it makes merry with the blueprint he’s laid down, yet doesn’t go off on tangents of self indulgence. In short, Pascal hasn’t grown a beard, bought a cape or found his folk side. Phew.
Flashmob continues much in the same vein as OK Cowboy, with pummelling compressed shards of intense mentalist disco and brain-frazzling wonkiness. With first single Your Disco Song leading the charge, the onslaught never lets up. Oscillating grooves hound throughout, with diva stylings illuminating Poison Lips, and the techno filth of Terminateur Benelux being quite literally the tune for all comers to beat from this moment on.
Elsewhere, the cosmic electro of Station Mir 2099 and Alain Deloin are indicative of Kraftwerk’s prophecy rebooted for the now, while Chicken Lady is what Prince may’ve sound like if he’d had cybernetic implants crudely inserted during his early eighties imperial phase.
Played loud enough, this album has the power to provoke actual riots and dismantle buildings. It’s genuinely colossal and makes Vitalic beyond future-proof and ready to lead the way again. --Ian Wade
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
I originally bought OK Cowboy on a whim while in a music store, it was a good whim and so I'm back for more. So is Vitalic and this album delivers on his earlier promise. He shamelessly goes for massive catchy hooks and slamming bass-lines without apology or hesitation - and then just blames it all on the 70's... There's a real 70's vibe running throughout and maybe the only thing missing from this album is his cover of Hot Butter's Popcorn or even better, the original Grange Hill theme tune!
It's all a lot of fun - even if that's a really un-cool word to use about dance music.
PS: Sorry for using the phrase 'slamming bass-lines', I tried hard not to, but in the end it became unavoidable. Get the album and you'll understand.
It's all a lot of fun - even if that's a really un-cool word to use about dance music.
PS: Sorry for using the phrase 'slamming bass-lines', I tried hard not to, but in the end it became unavoidable. Get the album and you'll understand.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
This album is very, very French and its creator
Vitalic (aka Pascal Arbez) certainly knows his onions.
'Flashmob' goes about its duty spreading
melodic mayhem like there's no tomorrow.
A little dated in the nicest possible way
but it is virtually impossible not to be swept
along by the enthusiasm and rich ideas generated
by its maker's fine musical imagination.
The apocalyptic big bass synth intrusions in
opening track 'SEE THE SEA (RED)' are the stuff
of wild nights and big, bad, bouncy disco dreams.
The bubbling post-Moroder obligato of 'Poison Lips',
together with its deconstructed, disembodied voice would
be almost impossible not to dance to on a good night out.
Had Phillip Oakey been available to contribute a lead
vocal the 80's retro-dream would be totally complete !
Title track 'Flashmob' is a dissonant rhythmic masterpiece.
A guaranteed rock-solid club anthem to be - if it isn't already.
There are very few weak moments in this stunning 13 track collection.
'Still' is a particular favorite. A fragile, fractured, almost
oriental melody is played out over a shifting, tonally complex,
arrangement of string-synth washes and skittering beats.
'Second Lives' is about as uplifting as uplifting gets.
The spirit of epic French electro is very much alive in this music.
Jeanne Michel Jarre might well have been there be smiling in the wings.
The pulsing cadences of 'STATION MIR 2009' and 'See The Sea (Blue)'
bring the genre bang up to date with skillful and knowing aplomb.
Noisy, bold as brass, single-minded and classy to the core.
Recommended.
Vitalic (aka Pascal Arbez) certainly knows his onions.
'Flashmob' goes about its duty spreading
melodic mayhem like there's no tomorrow.
A little dated in the nicest possible way
but it is virtually impossible not to be swept
along by the enthusiasm and rich ideas generated
by its maker's fine musical imagination.
The apocalyptic big bass synth intrusions in
opening track 'SEE THE SEA (RED)' are the stuff
of wild nights and big, bad, bouncy disco dreams.
The bubbling post-Moroder obligato of 'Poison Lips',
together with its deconstructed, disembodied voice would
be almost impossible not to dance to on a good night out.
Had Phillip Oakey been available to contribute a lead
vocal the 80's retro-dream would be totally complete !
Title track 'Flashmob' is a dissonant rhythmic masterpiece.
A guaranteed rock-solid club anthem to be - if it isn't already.
There are very few weak moments in this stunning 13 track collection.
'Still' is a particular favorite. A fragile, fractured, almost
oriental melody is played out over a shifting, tonally complex,
arrangement of string-synth washes and skittering beats.
'Second Lives' is about as uplifting as uplifting gets.
The spirit of epic French electro is very much alive in this music.
Jeanne Michel Jarre might well have been there be smiling in the wings.
The pulsing cadences of 'STATION MIR 2009' and 'See The Sea (Blue)'
bring the genre bang up to date with skillful and knowing aplomb.
Noisy, bold as brass, single-minded and classy to the core.
Recommended.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
I absolutely loved Vitalics last album OK Cowboy and was heartily looking forward to more of the same from Flashmob which is just as well because it is more of the same, well some of the time, while being angled subtlety away at others. It is sometimes a ruddy great stomping behemoth of a dance album that will rattle the roof off many a club but is also more diverse but is always tremendous fun to listen to at home which is in all honesty where I am most likely to listen to it. It is also a bit more outward looking as well as if Vitalic can see through the roof of the clubs into the night sky beyond.
Pascal Arbex-Nicolas, better known as Vitalic , has arguably not taken the music a hugely tangible step forward as befits an artist who is progressing massively but there is enough on Flashmob to emphatically suggest that neither is he an artist who is treading water or stagnating prematurely either. A track like "Still" with it's jerky rhythms , dispassionate female vocals interspersed with wide screen synths suggests early in his eye is not necessarily fixated on just the dance floor. "Second Lives " is a high energy glory of pulsing bass and whirring electric pulses that advocates texture is as important as beats. "Alan Dellon " ( presumably meant to be French actor Alain Delon )has a curious skittering metallic cadence over glowing sound track keyboards while "See The Sea (Blue) " even invokes some of the allure of 1960,s female chanteuse pop over chubby keyboard notes and phased vocoded vocals. I would challenge anyone to dance to "Chicken Lady" and not look like they are having a live hip replacement while being devoured by fire ants. In fact I would probably pay to watch that.
So maybe for those who want only thumping hedonistic floor fillers this album will disappoint to some degree .Certainly I would not advocate Flashmob is as good as OK Cowboy which makes me a bit of a hypocrite as I normally insist one album differing from the next but on the plus side there are still enough pounding pulses , throbbing bass lines and gyrating rhythms to keep the more dance focussed punters happy. Those who want more than hands in the air exhilaration should find plenty in Flashmob to keep them happy too. In fact with this album Vitalic has pretty much got all the bases covered. Clever lad.
Pascal Arbex-Nicolas, better known as Vitalic , has arguably not taken the music a hugely tangible step forward as befits an artist who is progressing massively but there is enough on Flashmob to emphatically suggest that neither is he an artist who is treading water or stagnating prematurely either. A track like "Still" with it's jerky rhythms , dispassionate female vocals interspersed with wide screen synths suggests early in his eye is not necessarily fixated on just the dance floor. "Second Lives " is a high energy glory of pulsing bass and whirring electric pulses that advocates texture is as important as beats. "Alan Dellon " ( presumably meant to be French actor Alain Delon )has a curious skittering metallic cadence over glowing sound track keyboards while "See The Sea (Blue) " even invokes some of the allure of 1960,s female chanteuse pop over chubby keyboard notes and phased vocoded vocals. I would challenge anyone to dance to "Chicken Lady" and not look like they are having a live hip replacement while being devoured by fire ants. In fact I would probably pay to watch that.
So maybe for those who want only thumping hedonistic floor fillers this album will disappoint to some degree .Certainly I would not advocate Flashmob is as good as OK Cowboy which makes me a bit of a hypocrite as I normally insist one album differing from the next but on the plus side there are still enough pounding pulses , throbbing bass lines and gyrating rhythms to keep the more dance focussed punters happy. Those who want more than hands in the air exhilaration should find plenty in Flashmob to keep them happy too. In fact with this album Vitalic has pretty much got all the bases covered. Clever lad.
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