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Mr. Oizo
Lamb's Anger
(Ed Banger)
"You are about to hear a collection of some recorded stuff. Some are good. Some are bad. Some are just okay," admits the robotic vocals a minute into the opening track of Mr. Oizo's Lambs Anger album, "Hun." She doesn't tell you which fall into what category, but assures you that "you are ready."
Mr. Oizo, real name Quentin Dupieux, has never been one to fall in line. The one-hit wonder, came into prominence in 1999 thanks to a Levi's commercial he directly with an adorable puppet named Flat Eric. The spot featured a wonky track called "Flat Beat," which somehow managed to top the British charts.
After the sudden success, Dupieux rebelled against his label, FCom, which wanted a more traditional and marketable sound, and fled to a little-known, up-and-coming label called Ed Banger, which was led by Daft Punk's manager, Pedro Winter, and was signing artists who dared to push the boundaries of traditional dance music. He went on to produce several tracks for the labelmate Uffie, including "Ready to Uff," "Hot Chick" and "First Love," while releasing unforgettable singles like "Nazis," "Patrick 122" and "Transexual."
Finally, a Steak soundtrack later, he's managed to release his first full-length on Ed Banger and his first album since 2005's Moustache (Half a Scissor). Ironically, Lambs Anger is probably his most accessible and poppiest album yet -- well, that's considering his former body of work. The album is still virtually undanceble, built on mismatched beats and unbalanced mixes. "Two Takes It," "Jo" and "Gay Dentists" show that if Mr. Oizo wanted to be a dance music superstar, he could have easily followed the success of "Flat Beat" with instant club bangers. But it's the more avant-garde tracks like "Positif," "Z," "Cut Dick," and "Bruce Willis is Dead" where he definitely shines.
While "Postif" proves to be the song that will define this album, collaborations with Berlin's Error Smith on "Erreurjean" and Uffie on "Steriods" definitely standout as the album's peak point in which it smacks you upside the head before slowing down album until the robotic vocals come again to declare the album "terminé" at the end of "Blind Concerto."
