Vitalic Reviews

In case you've been living under a rockLa Rock (ha ha ha ha HA!), you've probably heard the critical acclaim regarding Vitalic's new album Ok Cowboy. It was just released domestically Feb. 28th.

"The biggest and best 'fuck you' so far this year to the nonsensical suggestion that dance music is somehow 'dead'". [ Read more at PlayLouder.com ]��

"The shadowy European producer specializes in brutalizing electro-techno anthems that are about as subtle as a cement mixer. For DJs worldwide, Vitalic's 2001 cult classic Poney EP became the equivalent of carrying around a defibrillator in a record bag; any lifeless set could instantly be brought back from the dead with it... Listening to it from start to finish is so bracing it's overwhelming; it sounds like what it would feel like to drink six cups of black coffee chased down with a bucket of ice water." [ Read more at The Village Voice ]��

"This is an album that leaves you in absolutely no doubt that, at the very least, Pascal Arbez-Nicolas is the best thing to come out of France since Daft Punk." [ NME]��

"'La Rock' is the sound of imaginary techno-cockroaches itching their way across tinny drum slaps and paranoid skin." [Read more at Stylus Magazine ]��

"There's a pleasingly old-school flavour to many of the tunes, thanks to Arbez's refusal to use samples. He simply synthesizes everything, from grungy roadhouse guitar to a sort of stoned-marching-band tattoo, all pulsing with life. And his much-loved voice synthesizer sounds exactly like Gonzo out of the Muppets, which only adds to the fun. " [ Read more at The Guardian ]��

"In an interview around the time that his full-length debut, OK Cowboy, was released, Arbez stated that he didn't listen to techno albums "because they are boring"... [ Read more at Allmusic.com ]��

"Arbez’s (sampled) guitar-revved tracks are pretty fucking incinerating -- “My Friend Dario” and the city-burner “Newman” wreak all kinds of havoc on the drugged psyche and even the sober one." [cokemachineglow.com]�

"Vitalic is the pleasure provider: the ultimate rush, the greatest high, the invincible metal disco warrior." [ Read more at French-music.org ]��

"The rap on techno - that it's mind-numbingly repetitious - couldn't be less applicable to the aesthetic of OK Cowboy. It's dance music all right, but dance music of a variety so ferocious, so exuberant, that actually dancing to it is probably not advisable." [ Read more at Soundfixrecords.com ]��

"With the possible exception of a certain French house duo whose name we won't bring up quite just yet, it's difficult to think of another dance act whose career ascent has been as storybook as Pascal Arbez's. After toiling for years in relative obscurity under the aliases Dima (as good as the name suggests) and Hustler Pornstar (uh, ditto), the Frenchman didn't just draw blood with Vitalic's 2001 Poney EP, he lopped a few arteries. Seriously, it's hard to overstate the response to Poney; of its four tracks, three became high-tide dancefloor staples. Along with the dark, yawning electro of "Poney Part 1" and "Poney Part 2", there was the centerpiece "La Rock 01", still the reigning champion of songs that sound like paper shredders orgying in a wind tunnel." [ Read more at Pitchfork ]��