Vitalic - Rave Age
- By Matthew Laidlow -
- Oct 30, 2012
Does anybody really use the word ‘rave’ these days apart from fearmonger writers from The Daily Mail who assume a knees up for the ‘yoof of today involves drug cocktails and head banging music? Sadly, the word has moved on from the early days of acid house gatherings in the back of farmer’s fields.
Vitalic is yet another artist who has turned from faceless producer to someone who is looking to produce an album of tracks and be known as an artist. This then makes for confusing track lengths that are perfect for radio, but would struggle to make an impact in a so called ‘rave.’ Might be a good time to point out that Vitalic is called Pascal Arbez if he is looking to possess human qualities like Calvin Harris, etc.
Musically, Vitalic knows what he’s doing. Working in his craft for a number of years, he could probably bore you rigid about the difference between hardware, software and what wires need to go where. The throbbing ‘Vigipirate’ bounces and snarls throughout its brief two minute outing and that’s the main problem. It sounds like filler and one that was considered ‘an experiment that didn’t quite work but still sounds ok.’
There are songs on this album that will inspire people to dance, party or as the album’s title suggest, rave it up. Doing it large or big style is up to you. ‘No More Sleep’ continues the trend of short and energetic tracks being intersected by random vocals and a baseline dropped to whip a noisy frenzy. Whilst it does get a little repetitive, this is what people want and consume. Epic twelve minute long electronic songs aren’t as common as they used to be.
Musically, there aren’t any issues. There’s only slight concerns with the vocals in terms of that they occasionally sound more like a remix of an indie track than an original body of work. This is always the risk that producers take when working with guest artists. ‘Next I’m Ready’ for example just doesn’t like it belongs on a dance record. With big choruses making a return to indie with bands like The Vaccines, it sounds more like a digital b-side from a guitar act looking to appeal to a wider market.
Vitalic is yet another acclaimed French musician, but perhaps fails to have that killer beat that recent efforts from Justice and Sebastian have had.
6/10
By Matthew Laidlow. Blogs at hecklerspray and tweets at MatthewLaidlow
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