Chez Toi (EU)

Electronicat's 2007 album finds Fred Bigot (aka the titular artist) tackling aggressive, unworldly electronic/guitar pop once again in a deft balance between the engagingly acceptable and the completely gone. Saying that Electronicat has been doing a fine tribute to the likes of Fad Gadget for years is an oversimplification but captures the essence of what makes his music work -- there's something engagingly brutal and brittle about tracks like "Du Vent" and "Angers," to name two excellent high points, which avoid both overclean synth exercises and generic rock band instrumentation in a one-man band mode. Often something straightforward enough, like the opening guitar figure of "Pancake Lady" or the clipped beats of "Seveneyes," one of a few tracks with a vocal cameo (in this case Masumi Kobayashi), will get a massively higher volume bass-synth crunch stomping over it. But there's also a sense of queasy psychedelia at play, one that often appears in everything but the guitars themselves: vocals echo into the middle distance; the beats often crunch with shuddering impact somewhere on a continuum between the Silver Apples and Meat Beat Manifesto. "She's a Queen," a slightly older track reappearing as the album closer, rocks a schaffel beat with enjoyable ‚lan, while the exuberant "Lost Gigabyte," with lead vocals from Miss LeBomb, is a perfect combination of retro new wave via the Go-Go's, computer chop-ups, and a full-on acid rock-meets-goth guitar solo. A couple of tracks are just there, but otherwise this is a sharp effort from an equally sharp performer. ~ Ned Raggett|