If, like me, you’ve been aurally fixated on the elated, loop-tastic tones of eccentric popster Kishi Bashi for the past week and could use another setting of good strong electro-pop to burrow deep into your cranium and nest for a while, look no further than M83 and the radio-darling "Midnight City," off the French group’s 2011 double album Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming.
This cut, with its shrieking drone, walls of spacey synths, and pounding beats, has been getting quite a lot of airtime this summer, and not just because dance is dominating the pop charts: The song has everything. There’s futuristic male-female vocal harmony, wicked drum machine combos, sexy sax solos, and a head-swaying groove that refuses to allow your body to remain still. Did I mention the sexy sax solos?
Did I also mention the track bagged Pitchfork’s nod for NUMBER ONE on its list of Top 100 Tracks of 2011? Because, well, that’s worth mentioning.
After forming in 2001 as the brainchild of Frenchman Anthony Gonzalez (not the crazy-fast wide receiver), M83 released a series of steadily more successful records while simultaneously pursuing the ever more popular practice of remixing famous artists’ hits with a signature sound and then getting featured on their remix albums. Coattails can be a beautiful thing.
M83’s characteristic musical sound blasts are oft associated with the dronyness of the shoegaze genre, though that may be an unfair generalization. Particularly as the album count has risen, Gonzalez’s compositions have gotten more structured, more creative, more multi-faceted. Also, he tends to focus more on varieties of electronic sounds for melodic leads rather than guitar. And, thankfully for the Lolla crowd, these guys do a bit more onstage than just stare at their sneaks.
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