If you are an avid reader of the BU Central blog, you may have heard the name Mr. Oizo mentioned in one of my posts before. If you are any other person, it is probably unlikely. Mr. Oizo is a French DJ known for his song “Flat Beat”. The video (below) features Flat Eric, the most adorable head banging hand puppet I know.
Mr.Oizo (from the french word oiseau, meaning “bird”) is a strange guy, and it certainly shows in his music. Especially in his second album, Mustache (Half a Scissor), which is mostly made up of random noises. Interestingly however, the entire album was created digitally, using no analog equipment (like mixers or turntables etc.) He certainly makes up for it with his latest album, Lambs Anger. My favorite songs are the ones that use samples from random French films (I’m assuming that they’re films) like these:
Pourriture 2
Positif
Still, Mr.Oizo manages to slip in some of his strangeness, with songs like “Bruce Willis is Dead” and “Gay Dentists”. These are titles that make you say…”huh?”
Anywhoozles, I hope you enjoyed some… different… music. I don’t see Mr. Oizo hitting the main stream anytime soon, but he is still one of my favorites!
Yelle makes my life. Unconventionally-named band members Yelle, GrandMarnier, and Tepr make up the popular French band and consistently create incredible pop music that skews dance and electro. It’s virtually impossible to listen to their music without swaying your hips and flailing every single one of your limbs. Their beats are irresistible.
My skills in the French language are considerably lacking, which allows me to ignore the actual lyrical content and focus on how hardcore I’m dancing. Previous online research has led to the discovery that Yelle’s lyrics are RIDICULOUSLY dirty and provocative…I have no issues with that.
After the release of their 2007 debut Pop Up, the band fell off the radar for a bit. Their widespread popularity throughout Europe was accompanied by a notable following in America, but it faded as several years passed with no new music. FINALLY they’ve released their second album, Safari Disco Club, and it lives up to everything I could have hoped for. Here’s the double-music video they released last month for the album’s first two tracks, “Safari Disco Club” and “Que veux-tu.” It’s highly amusing and beautiful and colorful and amazing.
Yelle plays Royale Boston on April 29th, which I’m ridiculously excited for. Can’t wait to dance hardcore to the sounds of Yelle with the rest of Boston!
This week I’ve been listening to some strange music. According to the world’s most trusted source of answers about anything, Wikipedia, experimental music is something that “pushes the boundaries of the genre, or incorporates unorthodox, new, distinctly unique ingredients.” Whatever it is that I’ve been listening to lately, it certainly is unique. This experimental mood of mine has brought me down two very different musical paths: experimental jazz, and experimental electro.
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One of my favorite jazz bands “Medeski Martin & Wood” (who is actually coming to the House of Blues tomorrow 11/18) is a great example of experimental jazz fusion. The organ/drum/bass trio love to jam and try new things. Most of the time it works out, but sometimes not so much… Last time they came to Boston, they improvised a few songs that sounded like a woman going through labor and a hippopotamus having a bad acid trip accompanied by a blindfolded gorilla drumming with his eyes closed. But hey, that’s what sound experimentation is for!
Here is a good example of an strange, but enjoyable MMW song: Beeah
And if you don’t like that, give them another chance! This is more Jazz, less experimenting: Last Chance to Dance (Perhaps)
On the other end of things is Mr. Oizo, a French music producer/director/DJ. I’ve fallen in love with the album “Lambs Anger”, which is more mainstream than his earlier albums. I’ll let the music speak for itself here.
Listen to Half a Scissor off his second album “Moustache”:
Weird stuff right? Yah, I know, but I can’t get it out of my head. I love it! The entire album is like this: glitchy, fuzzy sounds over a strange beat. (This is kind of what I would imagine a waterfall would sound like if Tron were real life.)
His later album “Lambs Anger” has more of a dance beat to it, and isn’t so terrifically odd. Still, some of his songs are just so random.
Like, for example Bruce Willis is Dead:
But my favorite song my Mr. Oizo, and definitely my favorite song of the week, is Positif. The only lyrics are some lady or robot (not really sure which) saying crazy things in French like “Stop Reproducing Yourselves” and “You are animals!” It sounds so much better when she says it, trust me.
Well, that’s all I got for this week… Au revoir!
- Tim
