Available on: Flashmob, PIAS LP
Pascal Arbez-Nicolas is Vitalic, a Dijon born nutter whose OK Cowboy long-player kicked Electroclash in the nads all the way back in the 05. Remember ‘La Rock’ and ‘My Friend Dario’? Proper hedonistic electro: disco for lairy punks in pumps. He’s spent the meantime perfecting a killer live set and second album Flashmob - from which latest single ‘Poison Lips’ is nabbed from.
Live Vitalic feels like someone’s ripping your head off, shining lights in what’s left of yer eyes and ramming hi-NRG synths down the stump of your neck. On record, the Belgian is slightly more polite yet no less narsty. ‘Poison Lips’, which features the ethereal Eurthymics-esque tongue of chanteuse Brigitte, bristles with bass and glacial rave vacuum cleaners. This is the sort of tackle that gets you howling at the moon or at least the speakers when the Pro Plus you’ve sat on have grabbed you by the throat.
While perhaps not pushing the musical envelope over the edge into the neon heart of the rave, ‘Poison Lips’ is big room dance music injected with rocket powered synths and enough digital tweaks and twonks to make your teeth rattle. Vitalic’s exterior may appear sombre, but underneath there’s still a dark chemically enhanced heart beating.
Jim Ottewill