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If you're one of those lucky souls blessed with the gift of synesthesia, you may not feel so lucky when listening to this album. What you'll picture in your mind's eye when you hear
Darkdancer is the worst music video you've ever seen: feather-haired folks in red leather jackets with a surfeit of diagonal zippers wandering through a landscape of fluorescent geometric shapes. At the climax, everything moves in slow motion. Welcome back to the '80s. Les Rhythmes Digitales, a.k.a. Jacques Lu Cont (an Englishman despite the name), digs that woebegone decade enough to make up for everyone else's lack of enthusiasm. On what is for all intents and purposes his debut, he's aimed his arsenal of vintage analog synths at your nostalgia and pleasure zones. The result is a smooth tour of Eurythmic bass lines, vocoderizations, and a guest appearance from Canadian big-in-the-U.K. '80s singer Nik Kershaw. Considering how gimmicky the conception is, it's a surprisingly amenable listen from start to finish, though only on the astonishing single "Jacques Your Body (Make Me Sweat)" does he tweak his source material enough to make clear he's capable of keeping some distance from his silliest indulgences.
--Jeff Salamon
Album Details
Limited Edition features a bonus DVD (PAL/Region 0). While his debut album ran with the Wall of Sound crowd to the detriment of some interesting ideas, Jacques Lu Cont came into his own with the second Les Rhythms Digitales album. Consider Darkdancer as Lu Cont's senior thesis in the major course of study: History of Dance Music: The Early to Mid-'80s. And give him straight A's because he's obviously done his homework and actually studied the texts, without resorting to rote memorization and subsequent regurgitation come test time. Every club-oriented stylistic speed-bump of the decade is right here, including the era of female dance-pop before Madonna (yes, it did exist) with 'Take a Little Time', an earnest little electro-groover that earns Lu Cont bonus points for utilizing the crucial '80s diva Shannon. 'Hypnotise' is a nice little electro-paranoia track to fit in with Bambaataa's 'Planet Rock' and 'Brothers' takes on streamlined dance intellectualism a la New Order (with a straining pseudo-bassline to match). The house era is probably best represented, with nods to Chicago jacking house -- complete with stuttered vocal tags -- on the standouts 'Jacques Your Body (Make Me Sweat)' and 'Music Makes You Lose Control'. Even when he strays into territory last inhabited by Level 42, as on "Sometimes" (with Nik Kershaw on vocals), a great song and a great production rescue Lu Cont from anything potentially cringe-worthy. That's the secret of Darkdancer; well-written songs and excellent production skills -- plus a sense of fun that takes no prisoners -- make artistic originality nothing more than an academician's game. The DVD features the 10 tracks including remixes of 'Jacques Your Body (Make Me Sweat)' (club mix), 'Music Makes You Lose Control' (LRD remix), 'Hey You What's That Sound' (LRD remix), 'Sometimes' (Junior Sanchez remix), 'Jacques Your Body (Make Me Sweat)' (Cassius remix edit) plus 'Steps Ahead', 'Energy', 'Nancy Jamaica' and the videos for 'Hey You What's That Sound' & 'Sometimes'. 2005.
