Tempovision

By 2000, French house had passed out of fashion faster than some snotty indie kid could ask, "Mirwais and Madonna?" Yet this was the precise time when Etienne de Crecy -- widely believed to be one of the most influential dance acts to ever come out of the scene -- finally decided to release a personal full-length album under his own name. About time, really. Squiggling past looping divas, afternoon glares, and funkadelic body bops, De Crecy manages to manufacture a trail of songs that reach for that Anglo-French brass ring with nothing but admirable gravitas. There are bouncing squelches in the Zombie Nation-vein here ("Out of My Hands"), classically skewed big beat stomps over there ("Relax"), but the album really goes for the gullet when it doesn't know what in the world it wants to be. How else could you explain these Latino guitars and modem squawks? If Tempovision is trying to be anything, it's probably a response to seeing De Crecy's own Air/Daft Punk disciples get the coiffured crossover treatment and knowing that there's always room for one more. Which means pop diva production is only a step away. ~ Dean Carlson