Darkdancer
Les Rythmes Digitales
1999
Album Summary
Darkdancer is the second studio album by Les Rythmes Digitales, released in 1999. It peaked at number 53 on the UK Albums Chart. In 2005, it was re-released with an additional disc that included remixes, unreleased tracks, and music videos.
WikipediaThe 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 scene : cleaning my car in my garage, pretending to be in a Fast & the Furious montage
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
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!
Really digging these digital beats. It's got a cartoonish vibe, but it still feels mature and articulated.
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 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?
Really nice electronic dance album with strong tracks and cool sounds!
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
Þessi plata er bara algjörlega frábær! Ég tók double take á ártalið þegar ég hlustaði á fyrsta lagið, hélt hún hlyti að vera ca 10 árum eldri. En svo fékk ég svaka mikið Disclosure vibe í mörgum lögum. Hef grun um að þeir hafi samplað talsvert frá þessu bandi! Og nú verð ég bara að hlusta á Disclosure!
4.5 stars. This is close, but the last two songs aren't my favorite. Very nu-disco, synth pop, Daft Punk style electronica. Super danceable. THIS THING IS STRAIGHT BANGERZ. I just wanna dance. Almost every song has at least one part I just love. Last two songs tail off maybe a little but I liked this a lot
Like other electronic albums, I have a difficulty putting this one into context. However, every track is good pop music, if perhaps a little generic (though they may not have been for the time). It seems like sort of a weird choice for this list because I don't see it as being a groundbreaking album, but it's also hard to argue with because it's well-produced 4/5
interesting dance album. Sounds almost 80' in places. Will need another listen i think
Hell yeah. Certified back to back bangers from What's that Sound onward. What a synth lord. Big Sneaky Sound System and Early Calvin Harris styles. From:Disco To:Disco and Take a Little Time are highlights. Five stars if it started and finished stronger
a few great songs on here. flight facilities have used a lot of it in there mixes
Had this in college, but not listened to it in god knows how long. Still love it, dance in your seat stuff. Great beats, disco sound, remembered most of the tunes. Deffo has a 90s/00s kinda sound, a little bit of big-beat. Sampled widely in other stuff too (2manyDjs). Hadn't realised it was a British bloke riding the coattails of french house. Need more dance music in this list, but I guess the album is not as common a format in electronic music.
This is like an 80's-90's masterclass. It's just great and I can see why a lot of artists that want to get that vibe for their songs are still turning to Price. The cover art is plainly hideous though, but I guess that's just the 00's kickin in. Liked: About Funk
A fun, throwback French house jam. A few tracks felt too repetitive for my taste, but I enjoyed the album for the most part.
Really liked it despite limited experience with electronic stuff. Also cool to hear the missy/Ciara sample
Really nice album for playing in the background while other stuff is going on (like attempting to work). Full of electronic synth stuff, but not so overpowering that you HAVE to pay attention to it. I'm tempted to give it 4 stars, given how scarce my actually enjoying the selections has been lately. Relatively speaking, I like it better than yesterday's 3-star offering, so 4 it is!
cool album. lot of samples must have come from here. heard a lot of familiar things.
Fantastic album and very excited/surprised to see it on this list. I thought I was so cool listening to this in high school, and it still holds up well over 20 years later. 4.5/5
Yeah this is some groovy af dance music. Impossible to sit still to. Bass riff in "Music Makes You Lose Control" is amazing (and ah that's where that Missy Elliott sample is from!).
Liked this quite a lot. The thing stopping this from being a 5/5 is just that the vocals are over-repeated without enough other variation to keep it from being grating. Some songs are better than others in this regard. It doesn't bother me much over a single listen, but I know it'd stop me from playing the album on repeat, and thus 4/5 instead of 5/5
Holy shit, this is really good. "Music makes you lose control", that bass hook is rad! Never heard of this before, but I kind of love it, makes you want to shake your ass.
Electro pop goodness, what's not to like? Would have perhaps been super into it when came out, if I had been aware of it. That said, wouldn't say it's stand out above other electro of the era like Daft Punk or Timo Maas
Feels like a lifetime since I listened to this. Great album that blended French disco with 80s synth pop. I forgot how much I loved this. I have vague memories of seeing him DJ but I may have hallucinationed it. Fun times
This Daft Punk lite album is a rare cheese ball that is the reason people like practical effects and bad B movies. This is a B movie electronic album, a horrible, messy, bloopy, farty bass masterpiece. This album is fun. Heck, it’s a blast. Easily a reason to dive into the medium to easy listening electro field. Give me more ass shaking bleep bloop please.
Wow! Album van de dag is precies in mijn straatje!! Hier staan wel een paar lekkere tracks op, maar er zijn ook wat eentonige nummers. Mijn favorieten zijn "Hypnotise", "Take a Little Time" en de topper "Sometimes". ****
I like this one. Very energetic '90s techno/dance stuff, with a variety of influence. Some tracks even veer into hip hop sounding drums. The "music makes you lose control" sample is cool, not sure if that originated here, but it was obviously used again later. And the Buffalo Springfield sample was pretty surprising. Quite a few hits on here for me, I can definitely dig it. Always nice to take a break from the standard rock fare. Favorite tracks: Music Makes You Lose Control, Soft Machine, About Funk, Hypnotise, Jacques Your Body. Album art: Kind of a weird one, almost looks like those new AI generators made this. It's cool hip dude cracking open a Pepsi or something. '90s in all the right ways. 4/5
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.
After seeing the cover I was expecting a radical being from an alternate future to come and take me on a most triumphant voyage through hyperspace. While it didn't quite reach those dizzying highs, I did have a really good head bop and foot tap while he played an array of synthesizers at me. I spent some time in his company. We nodded knowingly at each other during particularly rad beats. We drank way too much sonic-Pepsi. We had fun together.
8/10 there were some pretty good moments here but nothing amazing feels like france had a surplus of electronic artists in the 80s lol while a lot of them were actually super talented, (mainly Daft Punk, who were geniuses at sampling/production) a lot of them are just kinda… fun, and not much else I’m not saying it’s bad, it’s fun but that’s all this album has it doesn’t sound very creative, like it’s reinventing anything still pretty cool
Not bad, as someone with extremely eclectic taste I deffo enjoyed this Saved tracks: Dreamin', Soft Machine, Hypnotise, From: Disco To: Disco, Sometimes, Music Makes You Lose Control - Lrd Remix
An interesting electronic / dance record. Standout Tracks: From: Disco To: Disco, Brothers, Damaged People
In order to stand out with house music, you need to make unique production choices that can elevate the sound overall. Les Rythems Digitales does that to some extent, but it feels like it falls flat more often than not. "From Disco to Disco" uses these great dirty synths and "Music makes you lose control" samples a bassline that seems out of place for house music but works extremely well. But then you get tracks like "Dreamin'" and "Sometimes" that are a bit more boring. With such a mixed bag, it's hard to outright say if this album is good or bad. I think it's definitely worth it's salt in one way or another, just not the best thing to grace this list.
Me when I started: There is zero chance I am listening to 1hr 39min of this. Me 1hr 39min later: I changed my mind. I’m kinda fucking with this.”
Some great tunes in this album and someone I always enjoyed DJing in the early naughties - no surprise he went on to bigger things but there’s a reason I hadn’t listened to this album in years and it’s just because it’s ultimately kind of forgettable
Plenty of good tunes on here, What’s That Sound etc… Great production and I suppose on release Electro was not as ubiquitous as it is now in pop music. A lot of this was on heavy rotation, mainly Jacques Your Body, and it is definitely an influential album. I’d rarely want to listen to it but it is good.
pretty fun French electrofunk, if only over half the songs weren't missing on Spotify. Also funny music make you lose control.
Semipositiivinen yllätys täysin vieraalta bändiltä. Biisit vaihteli laidasta laitaan. Välillä mentiin lähes Chemical Brothers-tyyppisissä elektrolooppausmaisemissa, kun osa biiseistä oli perinteisempää elektronista musiikkia. Normaalisti en erityisemmin pidä tämäntyyppisestä musiikista, mutta tätä kuunteli oikein mielellään taustalla töitä tehdessä. Toisaalta meno oli välillä liiankin poukkoilevaa, jolloin kokonaisuus vähän leviää. Kuitenkin omassa genressään oikein sujuvaa, kolmosen arvoista matskua!
Biisit turhan pitkiä ja yksitoikkoisia ollakseen mestariteos, mutta ei tämä varsinaisesti vituttanutkaan.
Hmmmm, couldn't quite get into this. I prefer my electronica to be either more banging, or more chin strokey, or ideally both. The album seemed to get better as it went on, though - definitely enjoyed the second half more. Fave track - "Damaged People" for sure!
Pretty cool beats and noises. Not sure I’d repeat listen to the whole album but the odd track here and there.
This is one electronic album that has actually grasped me and made me interested throughout its entirety. A lot of these songs do exactly what they want you to: get up, dance and have a fun time listening to it. It's really well produced and include interesting, diverse instrumentals. Unfortunately, the repetitive lyrics of electro-dance music is just not something that sits well with my brain, and these tracks take that up. Less is more for me with this genre, but a lot of these songs give off immaculate energy and enjoyment. Favorite Song: Music makes you lose control Least Favorite: Hypnotise
Generally speaking, a lot better sounding and engaging than other electronic albums on the list. Nevertheless, I cannot find these albums to be something truly great.
не совсем танцевальная, но почти без вокала. странный вокал, немного странные звуки и сама гармония, но в стилистике. синти поп из 90-ых
2 albums du meem genre en 2 jours. The shamen le jour precedent. Celui ci est quand meme meilleur mais jlai ma dose. 3*
Some cracking tunes on this album. Also some meh, reflecting my final rating...
An intriguing album filled with high-energy synth-pop, ranging from the catchy to the slightly irritating. M83 it's not, but it's worth a listen.
Probudih se, vidim cover i naziv, reko neki francuski dance housish album, imo sam pravo, poslušo par pjesama, nije za baciti, al cover albuma je. I onda dalje slušajuć me sve više privuklo da završim taj album. Mozd bi jednu-dvije izbacio, ali je sve u svemu solidan.
I knew this was Jacques Le Cont, I hadn't realised he was American! Sounds very mid 2000s when I was into all this stuff. A good few bangers
Tja wel aardig. Up-tempo en catchy. Maar op een gegeven moment had ik het ook wel een beetje gehoord met die sampletjes.
Pretty straightforward electronic beats, some good rhythms and samples but nothing too challenging. A little safe.
Oh, this is fun. Strong early 80s dance and new wave vibes in a 90s electro-pop package. I usually complain about the length of some of these electronic albums, but I didn't really feel that as much here. I might have dropped maybe two songs to make it tighter. Otherwise, it's pretty great. Fave Songs: Brothers, Hypnotise, Hey you what's that sound, Jacques Your Body (Make Me Sweat)
So I saw this was late 90's dance and thought ugh. Pleasantly surprised. I really dug the first two tracks - funky beats and I didn't mind him repeating the same lyrics over and over. However, it got kind of weak around his first "big" song (Hey You what's that sound?). Sounded a bit like the Ghostbusters theme - it was still good, but just, and things went downhill over the next few tracks. Way too robotic sounding. Some redemption in tracks 9-11 (bringing in a guest singer on Sometimes was a good move). Ultimately I say great start, but it faded and ended up just a little too uneven.
There was a point somewhere in the middle where a number of the songs sounded exactly the same. I mean, the vocalists he got were of, although "Disco II Disco" was REALLY annoying. And hey, it's Nik Kershaw! Haven't heard him in a while. The last song I really enjoyed, too. There was a really interesting video for it up on YouTube. But a lot of the stuff was very same-y, so yeah. Not something I am going to come back to. I am sure this club stuff is big, but just not a fan. But the few high points make me round up to a 3.
Normally not a fan of this genre. This album was actually quitte okay. Bit too long for me though. Favourite song: - Sometimes
French dance music, yeah okay. But a 1001AYMHBYD? (5/10) FT: Sometimes
Sort of a less impressive Fatboy Slim. There's some gold in here mixed in with a lot of generic 90s Brit Beats
I’ve had fun with the new wave, but once we get into techno or electronica, you lose me. I still can’t wrap my head around that. This isn’t BAD, persay, but it’s really not my thing at all, aside from a couple of solid hooks. I’ll give it a D, but I’ll also go up to 3 stars out of fairness.
It was ok. Not my preferred dance music. Maybe if i heard it out instead of in my office.
Sigh, 90's electronica/trance. hard to explain listening to cd after cd in search of that one tune in 50 that would blow your mind. This album was more accessible than a lot if it.
Surprisingly good. Benefits from higher quality speakers. It’s not usually my genre and a lot of the tracks kind of blended together, which I guess is the point with a dance album
Decent dance album, but not the best. I did learn that "Music Makes You Lose Control" is a full Les Rythmes Digitales song & not just a Missy Elliott blip. I had no idea of this band's influence on some of my favorite artists, so kudos to the artist. It just didn't move me (pun intended) the way I had hoped.
Playing catch-up after a distracting weekend, so keeping this short. Right off the bat, I'm seeing that most of the album is unavailable on Spotify, which is too bad. Kinda defeats the purpose of this exercise, but whattaya gonna do? What they did have was either fine to decent, but nothing really knocked my socks off. Giving it a generous 3, but it's probably closer to 2.5 stars.
I've definitely got a soft spot for electronic music like this, that comes straight from early-2000's video game soundtracks. I'd never listen to this based on the cover art. The music is pretty good. If I was in the right mood I'd definitely listen to it more.
This was a lot more fun that some of the other recent electronic albums (looking at you Goldie) In terms of my personal enjoyment I'd only really give it a 2 but I'm feeling generous today
This album is an extremely accurate example of all the dance sounds of the early 2000s. Decent. 3/5
Take daft punks music and imagine a guy with frosted tips and a shark necklace making it and that's what this album sounds like
Seems like a ray parker jr.-ghostbusters era synthesizer focused album. There's a few standouts, Dreamin' Hypnotise and Take a Little Time, though too many of the tracks don't really have a drive that holds my attention. Also Music Makes You Lose Control is very difficult to listen to. Ugh.
It's not bad, but it really wasn't my taste and the music seems a bit date in a bad way.
If these EDM albums are the ones that make the list, I'm confirming that I am not into EDM.
It’s okay. I love track 3 but not really into the repeated vocals and common musical theme throughout. Too samey but an interesting listen.
Barebones production without nuance or flair. One hit single. Not worth a re-visit.
Interesting and at times really enjoyable. Quite grating at other times tho and the album feel quite long and tedious overall. I can hear this albums influence on other bands I like but won’t revisit
Interesting and at times really enjoyable. Quite grating at other times tho and the album feel quite long and tedious overall. I can hear this albums influence on other bands I like but won’t revisit
A new band and new music for me. There was some okay stuff, but this album wasn't for me.
Not bad, but just not something I could get into. Every song was repetitive and sounded just like the one before it. By the end I wasn't sure if I'd listened to one long song or not.
Vähän oli sellasta tyhjänpäivästä eikä biisit tahtonu erottuu toisistaan. Ja pitkäkin oli. Meni se taustalla.
one of the weirdest inclusions on this list just really basic 90s electronic from a group that didnt do anything afterwords
Half the album wasn't available on Spotify but what I've heard was repetitive and unimaginative
Well. Le Cont is Stuart Price. Which makes that shtick an extremely worthwhile proof-of-concept. Still didn’t like it, tho.
Nije raspolozenje trenutno, tako da manja ocjena nego sta bi inace dao sigurno
Nee, dit is 'm ook niet voor mij. Hoewel dit wel beter te pruimen was dan de vorige.
I didn’t mind this at the start. The first track has a good synth hook and is catchy. If I were to compare “Hypnotise” or “About Funk” to Daftpunk mid-90s stuff, for example, this is more melodic and poppy. “Music Makes You Lose Control” and “Hey You” are borrowed and barely bearable. “Sometimes” with Nick Kershaw on vocals is not even remotely bearable. 5/10
This album was kinda fun but in a lame and mindless way. Music Makes You Lose Control reminds me of Devo. The album quickly got repetitive and at the end of the day I felt no great need to seek out the four songs that Spotify didn't offer. Eight songs was enough.
Another pretty weird electronic pop album. There were a couple songs that I could listen to and didn’t mind. There were some that were awful and I had to skip. Overall not too great. 2.9/10
Not a fan of techno or electronica or funk or whatever this genre is, but I can't say I hate it. Okay as background music, but the chances of me digging this up for another listen are slim to none.
I couldn’t listen all the way through. It was a bit of an assault on my ear drums. I was not in the mood to be challenged in that way.
2.9 - Pleasant enough but underwhelming. Tracks build on a few elements - a beat, a repetitive vocal phrase and some dramatic synth lines. I struggle to see what place this record has in the list. Compared to other electronic albums of the era (e.g. "Homework"), this feels staid. I feel like any semi-serious hobbyist could churn out something comparable on Garage Band these days.
I give this two stars cos there is a small number of tunes I actually do like, those being "Take a Little Time", "Sometimes" and "Damaged People". Apart from those, this album represents pretty much everything I hated about late 90s dance music back then and still have no time for now.
Есть известный трек (или ремикс на него). Есть неплохие вещи по звучанию, но, в целом, то самое звучание электроники, которое когда-то очень утомило меня. Зацепила разве что Damaged People. 4 из 10.
The Spotify version was missing a few songs but I got the picture. Generic dance music. A lot of the Spotify recommendations that came after this were much better. 2.5 stars
-"Jacques Your Body Makes Me Sweat" has cool bass to drive the song along -"Music makes you lose control" and "Hey you what's that sound?" have lines front he hooks I've actually heard before -"Soft Machine" mentions "Lucifer rising," which was a bit of a surprise -Other than those small notes, generally I found the music straightforward and repetitive. I can see how some of them would make good songs to dance to, but they weren't interesting to listen to
Dunno, felt a lot like a background soundtrack for a movie or something.
This genres isn’t my jam, but I can recognize why people would like this.
dreamin - 6 music makes you lose control - 5 soft machine - 6 hypnotise - 4 (hey you) what’s that sound? - 4 take a little time - 5 from: disco to: disco - 3 brothers - 4 jaques you body - 3 about funk - 3 sometimes - 4 damaged people - 3 steps ahead - 3 energy - 3 nancy jamaica - 4
Reeks of insufferable UK lad trendiness, probably the result of a spoiled suburban brat trying to copy '80s electro tunes on his expensive Korg keyboard. Has a few good spots but mostly boring and annoying. Not sure why this is essential, if you wanted to memorialize what a Lanhdahn wanker was listening to in the late '90s we've already had Finley Quaye and Tricky.
Skjønte ikke helt hva dette albumet gjorde på denne listen? Er det så jævla innflytelsesrikt liksom? Aldri hørt om, og hørtes ut som ganske halvhjerta gutteroms-remixer som man finner en milliard av på soundcloud
17. Há coisas que não sabem envelhecer. Sinto-me um gigante que olha de cima para as torres das Amoreiras. MotA: (Hey You) What's That Sound? "Don't just sit there dreamin' dreamin' dreamin'"
Nykyaikaista tanssimusaa. Aika hajutonta ja mautonta, ei ollut tarttuvia hittibiisejä eikä jalka lähtenyt hytkymään niin millään. Lähinnä tuli katseltua kelloa, että milloin tämä loppuu. Junnaavaa ja yksitoikkoista tavaraa.
It was a nice enough album to listen to but i found it did not have much depth, so it was almost restful, but not exciting.
Wiki shows that Stuart Price has produced a lot of albums for big artists. He should stick to just producing records IMO. This is one of those albums that makes you wonder what the authors of 1001 Albums were thinking when they included this as it really adds nothing new and there's nothing here that we haven't heard before. Propah good EDM bands like Daft Punk don't have anything to worry about here.
I would prefer something actually listenable on a Sunday. This ruined brunch.
"Music Make You Lose Control" has a nice bass line. If I were at a club, high, and looking to hook up, then this is probably really good stuff. But I'm not at a club, high, or looking to hook up.
It's... meh? Didn't mind the start of it, but from Disco to Disco onwards, it was hard to enjoy.