Electro music in 2006

Robots and Men

Paris 

02/01/2007 - 

From Bob Sinclar and Para One to Tiga and Gotan Project, 2006 was a vintage year for all types of electronic music. RFI Musique takes a look at the electro acts that made the headlines this year.

After Daft Punk's disappointing third album in 2005, critics were sounding the group's death knell.  But the electronic duo bounced back with a surprise mini world tour this year, including a stint at the Eurockéennes festival in Belfort, France. Thirty-thousand fans went wild at a spectacular night concert featuring two giant robots perched on top of a pyramid. All their hits got an outing, remixed for maximum live effect.

The music of David Guetta and Bob Sinclar couldn't be more different from Daft Punk's robot techno, and yet these two are generally considered more representative of the French electro scene. Bob Sinclar's clips are a staple on MTV; his World Hold On was a big hit thanks to that whistled hook which annoyingly worms its way into your head, while Rock This Party was a brash copy of an American track. In an article on "McDance", British electro bible Mixmag even mused whether Bob Sinclar and David Guetta were the musical equivalent of a Big Mac. The magazine has a point: this is electronic music designed to be consumed rather than savoured. Martin Solveig (his latest album is Hedonist) is not quite at that level yet. In any case, the readers of another British magazine DJ Mag place David Guetta, Bob Sinclar and Joachim Garraud (a protégé of Guetta) on their list of the 100 greatest DJs – the only French names to figure.

From mix to album

So where were Laurent Garnier, Agoria and Miss Kittin this year? In any case, DJs Chloé and Ivan Smagghe rendered us all catatonic with their sombre mix entitled The Dysfunctional Family. On the other end of the scale, Elisa do Brasil got us all on our feet dancing to drum'n'bass rhythms on her CD/DVD Massive. Laurent Garnier released a best of compilation of his four albums, Retrospective 94-06, but it's his phenomenal talents as a DJ that continue to surprise. As for Miss Kittin, she was busy with the turntables and deejaying like crazy all year. She also released A Bugged Out Mix, a double CD of dark electro rarities, a million miles from the very eighties techno for which she is known. In the same genre, Tiga hit the big time with his hugely anticipated debut album Sexor. This native of Montreal has found global success on the world's dancefloors, but nonetheless managed to find the time between plane flights and DJ mixes to make a techno pop album that pleases both the purists and the broader public. Perhaps the best techno album of 2006 ?

One of France's best DJs is Agoria, who hails from Lyon. His second album, The Green Armchair, also tries to please both techno aficionados and a broader public. Agoria is a master at mixing up hardcore dance classics with more sedate tracks, here accompanied by Neneh Cherry, Peter Murphy and Princess Superstar. This astonishing album defies musical labels. Para One is a new name on the hardcore techno circuit, and also produces TTC. He demonstrates his home studio wizardry on his debut album Épiphanie.

From album to live performance

Following in the footsteps of Daft Punk, French electro has been very much active on the live circuit. In 2006 the super-talented, hyperactive Émilie Simon released Végétal, a highly personal album that uses both organic and electronic sounds, which she performs live with a classical orchestra.

The duo Nôze have made their second album from their live show, a rackety, joyous effort entitled How to Dance. A band's second album is notoriously 'difficult', but Gotan Project also passed the test with flying colours. Lunático manages not to disappoint fans of La Revancha del Tango, without at the same time merely repeating the formula. There were also two acts that proved more interesting live than on record: the festive electro jazz outfit Da-taz; and Champion, alias Maxime Morin from Quebec on synths together with his five guitarists, playing a fusion of rock and techno. As for Cassius, we guessed long ago that they really wanted to be rockstars (as demonstrated by their latest release 15 Again), but live, they have some distance to go.

All in all, 2006 was a vintage year for electro, and particularly for techno, still very much under the German minimalist and electroclash influence (Michael Mayer, DJ Hell, etc.), although British practitioners such as Nathan Fake or James Holden have also had their effect.

In New York, François K., one of the great survivors of the electro scene, created a hypnotic mix of the best music to come out of Europe in 2006. Résumé on Vitalic's Citizen label is an eclectic affair that offers up some superb techno rarities released this year. Another release worth mentioning is the poetic Bosphorus from Double U, their third album, an ethereal fusion of folk and electronic. And then there's also the lo-fi folk of Volume Courbe, a young Frenchwoman signed by Damon Albarn. In 2007, the syncopated beats of Sebastian and the saturated bass of Justice should see the light of day on the Ed Banger label. Watch this space…

Nicolas  Dambre

Translation : Julie  Street