Vitalic

New album review: 'Flashmob'

O.K. Cowboy, the first studio album from the French electro-man, was the sound of crazy fairgrounds. And not just crazy fairgrounds, but slightly sinister ones where you might have slightly evil clowns lurking behind the tomboola and ready to pelt you with little ink pellets from a wooden catapult stolen from the confiscated cupboard.

And it was one of the best electronica albums of 2007.

His follow-up is overall more DANCEY, upbeat and conventional, but still littered with his charming c'est le francais idiosyncracies and trademarks (eg lots of spacey oddballness). 'Second Lives' definitely suggests 4am in some very happening club with ivory white walls and large angular mirrors. And it's got a track on it called 'Alain Delon', too, who was a pretty cool French actor. So that's, um, cool.

It's a cliche to say the French make the best electronic music. But they really sorta do. This is a pretty decent dance record, too.

*WIN 'Flashmob' CDs!* Simply tell us the name of Vitalic's debut album, and email your answer and details to chaps@maxim.co.uk. We've got 5 up for grabs!

*Entrants must be over 18 and live in the UK*

We test all our albums on a NaimUniti stereo. If we were testing for sound quality, every album would get five stars. But we're good little journalists, so we can't. Check out more at www.naimaudio.com. They make good stuff, believe us.