Analog Worms Attack [Audio CD] Mr. Oizo

Part dance album and part free-form experiment, When Analog Worms Attack is one of the more curious pieces of woofer-taxing techno to be heard. French artist-musician Quentin Dupieux, a.k.a. Mr. Oizo, proves emphatically that there's plenty of life left in deliciously free, bedroom-crafted expressions. Dupieux calls his sound "dirty house": subsonics are a rumbling ever-present, while the tunes themselves are like Paris on a rainy spring afternoon, lurking with crafty shadows and moments of wonderful high art. There are striplets of upbeat funk guitar laced throughout, but as the album strolls along, matters get significantly darker, the title track taking you into the shadier areas of the metro system before leaving you firmly entrenched in darkness with the fully developed "Analog Worms Sequel." Of course, Dupieux saves the most popular until last, with the European megahit "Flat Beat" (which sold more than 2 million copies in '99 after mass exposure through a Levi's commercial) tacked on as a bonus track some two minutes after the disc has ended. This CD is the aural version of a subversive, French art-house film. Add a good double espresso, some Gitanes plus a copy of L'Equipe, and it's a gloriously cheap vacation. --Steffan Chirazi