Darkdancer

A rant on death, friendship, and the power of music A big motivator for starting this project with my you my friends was inspired by living through the illness and death of my best friend Keith. During the final days of Keith's life, we spent a lot of time laughing just like we always did. Big belly laughs that led to coughing fits. When he first learned of his cancer, he turned to me one late night in the dark fall of Connecticut and in such earnestness said the biggest thing to process is "when is the last. like when is the last time I'm going to hear Dancing Queen." I think he would have loved this project. As Keith's final days got darker and slower in all earnestness I said "if anyone can come back as a ghost, it's you. If anyone can cross the veil for me, it's you. Let's seriously talk about how I will know. I'm thinking a slight breeze on the lower lobe of my right ear. How's that sound?" We laughed. His response was simply, "you'll know." I was struggling this morning. I drove to the ocean before work. I wanted to swim in the Atlantic and do a bit of a mental cleanse. I put on Les Rythmes Digitales who I never heard of before. This was Keith music. Hard, fierce, funky. We so loved that repetitive beat on the dance floor. Music Makes You Lose Control came on and all I could think of was Keith. I didn't feel the breeze on my ear but boy oh boy did I feel his essence. I laughed, I cried, I walked into the ocean. I was thinking about the song, and I know some people don't like repetitive music but for Keith and I this vibe was hypnotic and thrilling and just joyful. I kept thinking "hypnotic" what a word...what a feeling when music can get a groove going for you. Then the song Hypnotic came on and it all felt a bit otherworldly and connected. I don't really believe the dead physically touch the living but if this intense mental experience spawned through dance music made me feel connected to my friend, I'll take it. It's the only way we have to connect now. Music (good music) always made us lose control. This album was indeed one I had to listen to before I died. I'll be spinning it a lot until that day comes.

The book says that this album is "[f]aux French electronica at its best," which leads me to several questions. Why does faux French electronica exist, and why are we keeping tabs on it? Is this really the exemplar of the genre, and if so, what does bad faux French electronica sound like? Who is the target audience for this? If life is truly meaningless, and the human condition is to ascribe meaning to it, why is the conclusion "Eat, drink, and be merry" also something that an animal can do with no self-reflection? Are animals simply beings who have achieved enlightenment? If nihilism is constructed on paradoxes, is it any less true? What compels an artist to take a decent-sounding track and add a bunch of nonsensical sound effects on top of it? Best track: Damaged People

The editor of this book thought this album was more essential than anything by Yo La Tengo or The Cranberries

repetition Repetition is repetition is repetition is repetition is repetition is repetition is repetition is repetition is repetition is repetition is repetition is repetition is repetition is repetition is repetition is repetition is repetition is repetition is repetition is repetition is repetition is repetition is repetition is repetition is repetition is repetition is repetition is repetition is repetition is repetition is repetition is repetition is repetition is repetition is repetition is repetition is repetition is repetition is repetition is repetition is repetition is repetition is repetition is repetition is repetition is repetition is repetition is repetition is repetition is repetition is repetition is... ... not songwriting. At the risk of sounding all "get off my lawn," come talk to me when you can write a damn song. Until then, get off my lawn.

This was unlistenable. Naff, artless, annoying, repetitive trash

The album really took a turn for the worse once it started. The production is good, however, that’s mainly where my praise stops. The lyrics are nonsensical and the beats and vocals are annoyingly repetitive. I can’t believe they made an hour of this. If I just had one song, I could see it being a fun song to dance to and in that sense it’s fine, just not for me. 2/5

The scene : cleaning my car in my garage, pretending to be in a Fast & the Furious montage

I... actually LOVE this?!?!

Score: 90 Album art: 70 This album is so incredibly cheesy and dumb, but it's also a lot of fun. Almost every track is a banger. I laughed out loud when the singers voice was paulstretched during the chorus of the first song and it set the tone for the rest of the album. The final track is different, being a more serious dark wave track. There's not a lot of lyrics but damn if they aren't true. Favorite tracks: pretty much every song Least favorite: disco II disco

Listened to it twice!

Awesome sample heavy breakbeat techno dance album. Hadn't heard of them before and appreciated every moment.

This was my second favourite album of 1999 at the time (yes, I have a Google doc with 20+ years of end-of-year lists) (number 1 was Blumfeld's Old Nobody). It really takes me back to that time, which is a bit strange because this is quite retro music. Electroclash. Daft Punk. Nik Kershaw. I liked Les Rythmes Digitales because it did both the dancefloor-y stuff and the beautiful pop songs. My relationship with the album is too personal to be able to say if it 'holds up'. Listening to it gives me a nice jolt of nostalgic feelings and Sometimes is still a banger. 8/10

Nice - funky, danceable album - about a decade ahead of it's time - Ed Banger records peak of the mid-noughties seem to have either drawn from this album or it's one hell of a coincidence. Has the same groovy playfulness and thicc-ness of Justice, but with the earnest-ness and innocence of the 90 - the darkness hadn't set in on the dance floor yet I guess back then, although there are hints throughout.

This is less terrible than the plethora of other electronic albums on this list...or at I thought... Nope it went right into repetitive boring bullshit once again. I've had enough honestly. How many more do I have to listen to?

Albums like this are why I signed up for this project. I would have never heard something like this in my own. Album cover looks like young Brendan Frazier opening a Pepsi. The upbeat repetitive nature of the drum beats was my favorite part.

Straight booty shaking French electrofunk, disco-y, beat filled fun.

You know it's going to be rough when the two biggest tracks on the album are misspelled on Spotify. As another reviewer aptly commented: "Repetition is not songwriting." Sure, there are plenty of fun musical ideas, but as the vast majority of music greats would be willing to teach you, you need some kind of variation to keep the listener interested and to show artistic merit. Otherwise you're no better than abstract artists who paint their canvas completely red and then call it a day. (See appendix below.) To Les Rythmes Digitales' credit, some tracks avoid this issue. Music Makes You Lose Control has a lengthy and interesting enough series of guitar licks, that are texturally varied throughout the song, to let you forgive the horrendously repetitive vocals. Take A Little Time is clearly an uncreative disco throwback, but heck, that singing is so much better than any of the monotonous stuff before it. Later on the record, Sometimes takes the cake for best vocal (though it didn't have much competition). Sounds kind of like if REM tried out the EDM genre. The album feels like 2 stars while you're listening to it, but once you're done, you realise that fewer than half of the tracks are ones you'd be willing to approach again. Couple that with the relative obscurity of the music, and it's a mystery as to why this album made the list. Appendix: Hypnotise, tise, hypnotise, tise, hypnotise, hypnotise, tise, hypnotise, tise, hypnotise, hypnotise, tise, hypnotise, tise, hypnotise, hypnotise, tise, hypnotise, tise, hypnotise, hypnotise, tise, hypnotise, tise, hypnotise, hypnotise, tise, hypnotise, tise, hypnotise, hypnotise, tise, hypnotise, tise, hypnotise, hypnotise, tise, hypnotise, tise, hypnotise, h From disco to disco, disco to disco, disco to disco, disco to disco, disco to disco, disco to disco, disco to disco, disco to disco, disco to disco, disco to disco, disco to disco, disco to disco, disco to disco, disco to disco, disco to disco, disco to disco, from disco Br- br- br- brothers kay kay kay k- kay kay br- br- br- brothers kay kay kay k- kay kay br- br- br- brothers kay kay kay k- kay kay br- br- br- brothers kay kay kay k- kay kay br- br- br- brothers kay kay kay k- kay kay b 1/5 Key tracks: Music Makes You Lose Control, Take A Little Time, Sometimes

Ugh

Not my thing

A pulsating, giddy and infectious album from beginning to end, Darkdancer from Les Rythmes Digitales sees him approach the end of the century with the ethos of a prior decade's dance evolution, with tantalizing collaborations honoring the aesthetics whilst not plundering too much. Overall, Darkdancer is a breeze that will surprisingly reel you back in.

I didn’t think I knew anything about this artist until I learned that it is Jacques Lu Cont (Stuart Price) - the man who created the incredible remix of The Killers’ “Mr. Brightside.” Then I read about a pile of other work he did with The Killers and a bunch of other artists. As I was listening I noticed a Nik Kershaw song! I was a big Nik Kershaw fan in high school so that was another pleasant surprise. I enjoy some good dance-pop... this is bright, fun, energetic... makes you want to move! A nice addition to this list.

Background music at best

Eh, not for me.

blah

Not my style

Really enjoyed this, daft punk but more 90s

I can't believe I haven't heard this one! And the Jacque track made me realize that he and Missy Eliot both sampled the same track. Good stuff!

#643. Hey, uh, that sure was, um... something. 2/5: something

I'm not adversed to dance music - actually like it - but this is ll over the place . Maybe for an early (99) dane album it may be OK but I find it lacing. If I was clubbing and this came on I would throw something at the DJ (soft, as not to hurt them)

I get that it was influential, but it doesn’t even sound innovative for its time. I can hear the bits and pieces of the music that followed, the just don’t quite understand why this album was the one everyone keyed in on.

Eh.

This was hard to get through. Some tracks start promissing enough but don't ever develop into something enjoyable for me. Guess I know why most electronic music was so repellent to me when I was younger, if this is what was available at the time.

Seriously a funk/disco/pop album?

Oh wow, that slaps hard, I can not understand why I haven't heard of this band before?

slaps

Good old electronicy-house music

This really scratched an itch I didn't know I had

Listened to The Chemical Brothers yesterday so I’m apparently on a 90s tech bender but this ablum is also awesome—missing several songs on Spotify but none the less still great

This is just fucking great.

Awesome. Funktastic. Several stand out tracks.

Omg these lyrics are so repetitive! Is what I would say if I was stupid and didn't understand music

i groaned when i saw the album length but i actually really liked this! it sounded so retro and charmingly dated but also weirdly modern? idk. i had fun. im movin & groovin. this makes me want to get a corn dog at the mall and go rollerskating.

It’s a dance album, but, I actually kinda liked it

In the spirit of Stuart Price, I will conduct the rest of this review pretending to be French. Cet album est un example de <<electro>> et <<synthpop>> produit quinze ans avant et cinq ans derriere le genre était en vogue. C'est très amusant.

Darkdancer It’s been a long time since Les Rhythmes Digitales happened to drift across my transom. I remember liking the song Jacques Your Body back at Uni, as it was on that Citroen advert. I think I also had it on a free CD from Q or Select or something. Aside from that song I don’t know a great deal about LRD, and didn’t realise until today that he’s not French and that his real name is Stuart Price. And I wasn’t expecting to enjoy it as much as I did. It has some of that Chicago House influence as on Jacques Your Body, but also has lots of great 80s synth, funk and disco influences too. It may not have quite the naked pop ambition of say Fatboy Slim, or be as interesting or as consistent as the Chemical Brothers, but it probably sits at the Venn diagram of those two - a great, fun, danceable and catchy electronica record. It made me think of the Basement Jaxx record we had last month too, with some similar disco and funk touches, but this I think is much better - the grooves are catchier and the energetic and infectious charm keeps it driving it forward. Dreamin’ kicks things off with a burst of squelchy synth and a soulful vocal/sample hinting at Chicago House but with added 80s-ness. I love that little riff on Music Makes You Lose Control, reminds me of Barbarism Begins at Home a bit, but it’s great, it’s circularity feeding the groove, bit of a banger Soft Machine feels like a slight misstep, the vocal doesn’t quite suit it, but it does feel a bit like something from the Contino Sessions by Death in Vegas, which came out later the same year. Hypnotise is a great return to form though - Dr Who by way of the Eurythmics with a great repetitive insistent groove, excellent track. I vaguely remember (Hey You) What’s that Sound?, taking Skee-lo’s interpolation of For What it’s Worth and turning it into a synth laden electro dance bop. Great track. Take a Little Time is a banging early 80s throwback, feeling like something the Pointer Sisters or Chaka Khan might have done. ‘Wahahahahahahah’ - love that keyboard sound on From: Disco to: Disco, another hypnotic banger. Brothers goes back to the Chicago House/techno well, may not be as strong as some of the other tracks but the bass is great and it still gets your head nodding. Jacques Your Body is still great, that slap/funk bassline is very catchy and very air ‘thumbable’. About Funk is interesting, the synth hook that appears halfway through takes it into a different world, more ethereal and spacey, making it more interesting than the first minute or so might indicate Sometimes is unexpectedly great. He’s obviously a very skilled arranger writer to make very listenable tracks out of repeating motifs and phrases, but this shows a degree of songwriting craft and is an excellent track, with the perfect throwback vocalist. Damaged People, with the same vocalist as Soft Machine, is slightly better than that track, although still not quite sure it works that well. Overall though, this feels like a bit of an energetic, infectious, overlooked gem from the late 90s - other bands ploughing a similar furrow might have been more successful, but this is a great listen. It also feels ahead of its time, pre-saging a lot of the mid to late 00s electroclash and house stuff like Simian Mobile Disco, Mylo, Justice and all those Kitsune Maison compilations, taking influences from the history of electronic and synth driven music and making a great dance album. Easily a 4. 🕺🕺🕺🕺 Playlist submission: Jacques Your Body

Very quirky. A fun dance album with that classic repetitive style of the 90’s that we’ve seen on a few other dance albums in this list. Music Make You Lose Control was fun to see as a sample from Missy Elliot. Also Hypnotize sounds like a similar beat to sweet dreams. This album felt like a stepping stone for the jet set radio future soundtrack too which was really fun.

Really digging these digital beats. It's got a cartoonish vibe, but it still feels mature and articulated.

I had no idea what I was in for with this album. I’d never heard of the group, person, whatever, in my life. I figured it was going to be electronic music, but I wasn’t sure. Turns out I was right, and turns out Darkdancer is a really good album. Y'all know me, I’m still the same OG, but I been low-key about how I love dance music. However, the 1,001 must hear list has been giving me trash when it comes to electronic music. However, Darkdancer by Les Rythmes Digitales, while not a great album, is full of cool stuff that will get you shaking your tail at your desk when working. The album came out in 1999, which you can tell almost immediately. Not necessarily that it came out in 1999, but it sounds like the 90s. The album, according to our friends at Wikipedia, is looked at as launching the electropop dance music of the 2000s. God bless, LRD for that. I might not have had Daft Punk in my life otherwise. I’m not someone who can speak intelligently on electronic or dance music. I just know what sounds good when it hits my ear. As soon as I heard the first bleep, bloop, I knew this was more my speed. It’s still got its annoying parts, but compared to New Forms by Roni Size, LRD are the Beatles. The big problem with albums that are looked upon as the starts of a big music movement, if you’re hearing them years after the big movement, those albums don’t sound as good as the best albums of that genre. As I said, I can’t give a long dissertation on the subtleties of electronic music, so to me, LRD sounds just as good today as it did when they first came out. I’m sure connoisseurs could see how things progressed since 1999. Track 10, Jacques You’re Body Makes Me Sweat is a banger, as the kids say. As with a lot of dance songs in the 2000s, and perhaps still today, the DJ builds the song piece by piece until about a dozen tracks are playing one sound or rhythm. This track is the same, but it’s got a great groove. Most of the tracks have no vocals except for a sample played over and over and over again, which can get annoying if the music isn’t especially good. Most of the music is good enough to keep you locked in rather than spinning out. However, I find that the songs with singers are better. Though I imagine every human singer, by the time it goes through recording and ends up on the album, has passed through any number of computer programs to remove the humanity, and in the end, it is just another computer sound. I would recommend this to people who love dance music and have never heard this album. If this were the first of its kind, you can really hear how it inspired 100s, if not 1,000s of DJs. If you like Daft Punk, you’ll dig this. Now, is it a must-hear album? Hmmmmmm, for historical context, probably, but otherwise, I’d put any Daft Punk album over this.

Cover 6 Got bops. Never heard this before. Pretty good 90s EDM.

- I saw this album cover and was like…this is going to be a 1. Maybe 2. I was wrong. This was fun as hell. Definitely 1999 dance pop. I loved it. Perfect example of never know what you’re going to get.

[pointing like leonardo dicaprio meme] omg, same sample as missy elliot there were a couple i recognized in here actually. great background music for cleaning & packing

Despite the French name, this guy/group is British. This is an album full of dance/elctronica music from the 90s. The tracks on the app differed from those on Wiki (I used the app). While listening to it I felt like I was hanging at the club. Overall the music exceeded my low expectations; it would serve as great background music while you are doing something else. 7 out of 10.

Background music for the "Choose Your Car" screen on a Playstation 2 racing combat game. Pretty bad vocals on some songs.

I don't get this album's low ratings. Is it great? No. Did I need to hear it before I die? Also no. But I've also heard far, far worse on this list. Was just fine to get through some of my work to-do list today. Was great background noise. 3/5

This is a solid throwback to late-'90s electro-funk with a heavy dose of retro flair. It's got a slick, polished sound that works well as background music—something you might put on while cleaning, working, or hosting people who don’t want anything too intense. There are definitely a few standouts. “Music Makes You Lose Control” is catchy and playful, “Sometimes” has a nice groove, and “Damaged People” adds a little emotion to the mix. “Disco II Disco” also has a fun energy that stands out from the rest. That said, I didn’t find myself wanting to come back to the album or add many of the songs to my regular playlist. It’s good, just not essential.

Techno. That hive of scum and villainy that was a bastard child of disco and 80's electronica. I liked it!

Interesting as background music. Not something I'd revisit, but a fun enough listen one time around.

Kinda fun background music for cooking

I enjoyed this more than I thought I would.

Really catchy, gem I never would've found.

An interesting electronic / dance record. Standout Tracks: From: Disco To: Disco, Brothers, Damaged People

This was fine background music. It wasn't bad but I'm not sure it was good. 2.5 rounded down

"This meeting could have been an email" "This really long album could have been a single" They can't all be bangers. Was this even popular in the UK? I don't think I would listen to it voluntarily. Electronic music is fine but uh...

kind of fun at points, too repetitive, got sick of it as it went on

Perhaps it's a situation of it being revolutionary at the time it was released but now sounds incredibly dated, but yeah, this album is extremely dated to my years. Doesn't seem to sound particularly original either. I'm hearing quite a bit of Eurythmics and Nine Inch Nails aping (But not in a particularly great way). And the samples used aren't great either. Yeah, pretty not great in my opinion.

The album really took a turn for the worse once it started. The production is good, however, that’s mainly where my praise stops. The lyrics are nonsensical and the beats and vocals are annoyingly repetitive. I can’t believe they made an hour of this. If I just had one song, I could see it being a fun song to dance to and in that sense it’s fine, just not for me. Music Makes You Lose Control made me yearn for the Missy Elliott and Ciara version… 2.5⭐️

dog there are just too many of these club albums on here, I can't imagine ever listening to this outside of a club/rave/whatever situation.

Fine as background music, not especially interesting. But not unpleasant

Friendship ended with “I Should Coco” by Supergrass Now Les Rhythmes Digitales “Darkdancer” is the worst album cover on the list.

This album is a lot like sitting through heavy traffic. Every once in a while you'll look out the window and say to yourself, "Wow, that's a cool looking car, or that's an interesting thing that man is doing with the loose brick off the sidewalk." But for the most part, it's a really tedious, headache inducing experience. This album has its moments but I mostly wanted to rip my ears off my head and never listen to anything ever again.

Not a bad dance album, but it’s pretty forgettable not sure about it’s place on this list.

Bad

"So what's this then?" "No idea. It was listed under 1001 albums to listen to before you die" "Must be good then" "Not really, it's a bit shit" "So why are you listening to it?" "Just in case it isn't shit, but turns out it is" Heard before ❌️ Listened this time ✅️ Revisit ❌️ Forgettable ★☆☆☆☆

This album is like elementary school skill level electronica. It is actually classed as faux French electronica because dude isn't even French, he was born in England. Why is this a genre. Is there really that many people who want to pretend to be French ffs??? This album blows. Why the fuck is this on this list... Favourite songs: Jacques Your Body Makes Me Sweat, Music Makes You Lose Control Least favourite songs: Damaged People, Sometimes, Disco II Disco, Soft Machine, Hypnotise 1/5

So... we're just letting everyone in now?

Holy Hell, this is my nightmare soundtrack. I think there's a circle of hell devoted to music like Les Rythmes Digitales'.

This album sucks

Is that Andy Samberg? Anyway, pretty meh album. I've never been that big of a fan of this style of electronic music - overly clean production with a thin, wiffly soundscape. None of the rhythms are interesting or compelling, none of the textures are evocative of anything at all to me. This is dance music with all the personality of the paint on the walls of hospital hallway.

This music did not interest me.

loved!

I was nervous when I saw the album cover but was happy to be wrong - wall to wall bangers!

Fantastic

Bij het zien van de hoes merkte ik lichte tegenzin moet ik eerlijk toegeven, maar verrek, positieve verrassingen: ze bestaan nog aan de achterkant van deze lijst. Track 2 (Music Makes You Lose Control, inderdaad: die met die sample die later ook bij Missy Elliot is gebruikt) is verrassend leuk omdat er onverwacht een gitaartje bij wordt gepakt en dan verdwijnt de aanvankelijke scepsis als sneeuw voor de zon. Track 3 is een soort Nine Inch Nails met Jamiroquai, ook leuk. Track 4 is wat Boys Noize, Daft Punk en Shiny Toy Guns. Altijd lekker als je even wat andere artiesten kan noemen om te etaleren dat je een brede smaak en kennis hebt. Kennen jullie Dada Life ook nog? Niet elke track is even leuk en de grote rode stempel met 'gedateerd' ligt binnen handbereik op m'n bureau (bij die Madonna-achtige track 6 begint de stempel zelfs naar me te knipogen), maar ik heb de laatste week albums gehad waar ik een stuk minder plezier aan beleefde. Dit is echt verrassend tof. En dan kan het zomaar gebeuren: een licht overdreven maar zeer vrolijke 5 sterren. Met plezier helemaal afgeluisterd en misschien gaat 'ie later vandaag nog wel een keer aan.

Really like it. So groovy Ahead of its time

Sophie <33333333

Rad

Oh my god this album. First off, just look at that cover! It screams early 2000s and my god does this album sound like it. Seems a lot of people copied him and after checking Wikipedia, he's worked with a ton of pop artists. This album has a nostalgic feel for me. That good old 2000s culture was racing through my mind during the whole album. I was hoping "Disco II Disco" would have actually been titled "Discome to Disco" like I had heard in the lyrics. This dude has some odd synth sound choices sometimes, but it's endearing to me

Loved it

Oh yeahhhhhh. Just what I needed after Ute. This guy is on some funky rhythms. Really into this. Wanna do my hair with some gel and a comb in a funky montage wearing wired headphones to this you feel me? Rock your body baby. Why are most of the songs unavailable on Spotify?? That's sad, but this is something. Literally elio-ing on my couch to this fuck yeah. God this is so 2000s baddie. Wait has Music Make You Lose Control been sampled or is it a sample? Ok it's a sample but it's also been sampled in other songs interesting. Who is this Hot Streak? Idk but I'm a big fan of how LRD used their song. Oh to be alive back then I bet the clubs were bumping. Oh French man don't hurt em!! I can't believe so many songs aren't available that's so sad. Why am I hearing Japanese. Why is it the same thing repeated. Edm hoes will sample anything bruh not even shoppers are safe. Wait is this deep? Oh fuck yeah. I would've been INSUFFERABLE if I was a funky white boy listening to ts back in the day. God knew I'd be insufferable and nerfed my ass. Great album. Favourite: Dreamin'/Damaged People Least favourite: Sometimes

5 songs added to my favorites. Listening again regularly.

interesting electronica

No notes.

This was so repetitive but I loved listening - just so much fun. I guess I'm a Faux French Electronica Head. Also this is the first album on the list that I immediately repeated after listening. It's so stupid, that it is genius.

Prende le funk

Ja its hip very cool Euro, no?

Wow, what a flashback! Had this one on CD when it came about, which was a long ago, so i had enough time to forget it. Some tunes bring back incredible teenage memories, which is why can't give this one less than 5 out of 5. JLC one love.

This was not really my genre, but I loved it. The melodies and beats were fresh and cool sounding and it was really well produced and recorded. I listened to it twice. Five stars.

Great album. Really enjoyed it

Pretty upbeat and fun listen.

A fun one! It felt a bit dated but it was still quite likeable. Fun instrumentals with fitting vocal work. 'Mdc vendredi' was my fave.