Do you know Vitalic? Already many do. To those who love his music, his unique sound, he’s the pleasure provider: the ultimate rush, the greatest high, the invincible metal disco warrior. With his debut four-song ‘Poney EP’, first released in late 2001, Vitalic tore through dancefloors across the world like the Wagner of rave. An original and fearless new talent, it was clear from the start that Pascal Arbez, the Frenchman behind Vitalic, was not just another dance producer, but a visionary artist whose extraordinary music never fails to move people.

Vitalic is a Russian first name, and Russian is Pascal’s second language. He studied it at school and university, and his first musical alias, Dima, is also Russian. There was a time when he liked fans and media to think he was Ukrainian and he fabricated a suitably misleading biography, which only intrigued people further. He’s 28, but knows he looks older, and, when he thinks about it, is quite content with his life at the moment. He is not showy or flash and can’t fake enthusiasm or tolerate sycophancy.

His initial sporadic releases as Dima in 1996 and ’97 on the Choice label were brutal nose-bleed techno affairs which no-one outside the French techno scene really knew about. Within that scene he became good friends with Michel Amato, aka The Hacker, and befriended Amato’s Goodlife label crew in Grenoble. The Hacker suggested he send his new tracks to DJ Hell in Munich, which he did. Then Hell’s International Deejay Gigolos label released Pascal’s ‘Poney EP’ just as Fischerspooner fever and electroclash madness broke and it became their biggest-selling 12-inch, played as a searing peak-time anthem by everyone from Aphex Twin to Richie Hawtin to Erol Alkan to 2 Many DJs to Laurent Garnier to Tiga… honestly, the list is impressive and endless. ‘La Rock 01’ swiftly become a quick-fix club cliché. But it’s still dynamite. Which is why Pascal included it on ‘OK Cowboy’ along with the two ‘Poney’s, as “a reference to the past”.

A selection of musicians Pascal admires: Daft Punk, Sparks, Crash Course In Science, Valerie Dore, Giorgio Moroder, The White Stripes, Belgian composer Wim Mertens, Fad Gadget. He’s not a big record buyer and doesn’t know the names of lots of his favourite tracks. He mainly listens to MP3s. His first love, when he started making music as a teenager, was Belgian new beat.

Pascal works a lot with Brigitte as well. She’s a versatile speech synthesis program and will do anything he tells her to. That’s her voice all over ‘OK Cowboy’. Then there’s Dario, the subject of ‘My Friend Dario’, Pascal’s naughty alter ego who drinks when he drives and parties way too much. All the instruments Pascal uses are fake, in the sense that he meticulously generates everything from a synthesiser. So if it sounds like a guitar on ‘La Rock 01’ or ‘New Man’ or ‘My Friend Dario’, it isn’t. Nor is it a Moog organ on ‘Wooo’ or an accordion on ‘Polkamatic’. Incredibly, the drum rolls on ‘Valetta Fanfares’ are faked too. It took Pascal three weeks to create those drums. Even his sound man was convinced the drums were sampled. The only thing Pascal can’t fake is the emotion that galvanizes his remarkable music. He is a master of melody. And with ‘OK Cowboy’ he has truly surpassed himself.

Past events

• Sat 17 Nov at Manchester Warehouse Project. (post review)
• Love And Good Times, Fri 21 Sep at London Fabric. (post review)

News

• 07/03/2008: Busy P, Orbital, Coldcut, Vitalic: England vs. France in titanic DJ battle
• 08/09/2005: Mash it up: 2manydjs hit the UK

Links

• Vitalic Online - Pascal Arbez official website

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