Offspring to classical pianists of Reading origin, who favoured holidaying on the continent to mucking in with everybody else down Blackpool Pleasure Beach, British- born Stuart Price is said to have turned on to the lofty gatemasters of electro Kraftwerk and Afrika Bambaataa at a very early age before dabbling in the unearthly delights of French proto-electronica figures like Pierre Henry and Jean-Jacques Perreyas at the onset of puberty; experimenting with synthesizers in much the same way other boys were experimenting with spots. This is why with a sound and an attitude more akin to French nu-disco neighbours like Daft Punk, Les Rhythmes Digitales have crafted a prophetic vision of life in the nineteen-eighties. Sounds a little backward looking? Well think of it more as a tribute; a tribute to the chaffing electro-pop nonsense of mullet sporting, day-glo campers like Depeche Mode, Dead Or Alive, Nik Kershaw, New Order and Shannon with an interested nod in the direction of acid-house, techno and trip-hop. What makes it even more anomalous and anachronistic is the fact that it was originally released in 1999 just before a wave of spurious mongrels came together as the electroclash collective: Ladytron, Chicks On Speed, Fischerspooner, ARE Weapons et al. In this respect, you might regard Les Rhythmes Digitales as something of a visionary. In other respects you might see tracks like ‘From Disco To Disco’, ‘Brothers’ and ‘Jaques Your Body’ as inspired Daft Punk simulacra; a reproduction inside a fake inside a homage wrapped in a copy of yesterday’s newspaper.
Regardless of its authenticity (what is real, afterall?) and with scant attention paid to the anal politics of its place in musical histrionics, this reissue is still a frothy, bonafide classic of some fifty or so minutes of mindlessly entertaining beats and memorable cameos, with appearances from 80s sweetheart Nik Kershaw (‘Sometimes’) and the unmistakable Shannon.
The bonus disc of remixes (by Cassius, Junior Sanchez and LRD) are hardly exceptional but at least you can enjoy the gently amusing videos for ‘Hey You What’s That Sound?’ and ‘Sometimes’ that accompany the release.
You’ll have heard much of this a million times before already without you even being aware of who it was by. Maybe you thought it was Daft Punk, who cares, it’s still worthy of your attention.