M R. O I Z O If Justice Built the House of French Dance Thrash, Mr. Oizo Tears

<music reviews> Written by Drew Tewksbury M R. O I Z O the French House kick drum (see, night that puts everything on L a m b s a n g e r also, Daft Punk’s “Da Funk”). the table, The Drones’ fourth “Cut Dick” is a hilariously corny album, Havilah, exposes ugly <ed banger> funk song that, somehow, is and beautiful truths with its If Justice built the house of totally satisfying with its ridiculous twisted visions and demented French dance thrash, Mr. Oizo keyboard-sax solo over the cast of characters. The Australian tears it down on Lambs Anger. unceasing bass drum. Partially band’s songs inhabit a darker side Deconstruction is nothing new engorged with huge rave sounds of California folk-pop and the for France’s l’enfant dancible. Mr. of the mid-’90s, “Pourriture 2,” psychedelic ’60s. The gentle guitar Oizo’s (pronounced WAH-zoh) “Pourriture 7,” and “Gay Dentists” plucks of “Careful As You Go” cut-and-paste musical process first improve Euro-House synth licks fight with the twang of Gareth lit up the radar on the international and super-reverbed-out drum Liddiard’s snarling voice and the scene in 1999. As a music-video machines with wiggle-inducing drunken cadence of his Australian director, Quentin Dupieux, aka rhythms. Many of the album cuts infinitely looping ten-second clips. accent. Liddiard’s bellowing and Mr. Oizo, wrote a song for a could be club singles on their own, It is in this void of lazy creativity, playful growls recall the works but the minimalist, electro cut so often masked behind a thin veil of creative madmen, such as “Steroids,” featuring Paris-based, of postmodernism (“Man, this Roky Erickson, Neutral Milk bratty-rap wunderkind Uffie sorta shit’s recombinant!”), that hip- Hotel’s Jeff Mangum, and even rapping over soul claps and booty hop’s third decade festers, marked Charles Manson (whose musical bass, proves to be one of the most by mind-numbing copycat-ism. experiments are actually pretty strangely sexy dance tracks of the Dälek isn’t the future of hip-hop, good. Part-time maniac Dennis year. Lambs Anger has so much but an appealing alternative to the Wilson agrees.). On “I Am The going on, including an irresistibly superficial flotsam of today’s chart Supercargo,” Liddiard’s preacher- silly remake of “It Takes Two,” that toppers. Unlike pop-rap, Dälek’s with-fever-dreams howls evoke it is nearly impossible to process it thick, evocative soundscapes— Nick Cave at his most psychotic. all now; reflecting upon it in a year essentially an orchestra of After all, we want a little madness will prove that Lambs Anger was noise laid over classic hip-hop in our musicians; they are the ones the prime mover in a generation breaks—function as melancholic on the forefront of consciousness, of something new. And something movements and head-nodding blazing trails through emotional Levi’s commercial (starring a truly weeeeeird. soundtracks for introspection. spaces we’re not ready, or yellow puppet named Flat Eric. willing, to explore. On Havilah, Google it!), then dropped it (“Flat D Ä L E K T H E D R O N E S The Drones tumble into these Beat”) into his experimental g u t t e r t a c t i c s H a v i L a H darkened realms, swaggering with breakbeat album, Analog Worms delightfully sloppy guitar and <ipecac> <atp> Attack. In 2005, with his second tumbling drums, as the record album, Moustache (Half a Scissor), My Bloody Valentine would have “In Vino Veritas.” In music, there brims with the urgency of a Dupieux pushed his sound forward, no analogue in the rap world if it is truth, too. Like a drunken confession from the gallows. marrying fragmented samples weren’t for Dälek. The New Jersey- with hyperkinetic synth tracks that spawned hip-hop duo, producer could have crawled out of a Casio okt0pus and MC/producer Dälek, keyboard. Mr. Oizo seldom fits occupies a musical space that defies into the musical zeitgeist, choosing categories. Shoegaze rap? Noise instead to forge new genres—and hip-hop? Darkwave-grunge-grrriot- Moustache (Half a Scissor) did just guys? Not quite. Regardless of that as the prototype for the French their phylum in hip-hop’s family revolution waged by Justice and tree, Gutter Tactics—released on other Ed Banger Records alumni. former Faith No More member On Lambs Anger, Dupieux births and current avant experimentalist a bizarre little baby. The record Mike Patton’s label, Ipecac reveals influences from Afrika Recordings—takes the duo’s songs Bambaataa, Daft Punk, and vinyl deeper into the moody chrysalis deconstructionists like Kid Koala, of layered, fuzzed guitars, breakin’ but overall, the bizarre production beats, and politically charged lyrics. of the album—chopped-up funk On “No Question,” the moans of samples, cheese-ball analog what could be a thousand guitars keyboards, and tongue-in-cheek put a blanket of warm noise under vocal snippets (“Bruce Willis Is Dälek’s flow and the sped-up Dead”)—distinctly brands Lambs Portishead beat. As with the best Anger as none other than Mr. Oizo. rock songs, Dälek and okt0pus By far his most listenable album, have a verse-chorus structure that it dispenses with julienned beats eschews much of contemporary in favor of constant pumping of hip-hop’s rambling lyrics laid over 121.

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