I know 2 people who actually bought their album.

 

The shame :(

Just listened to Out of the Blue for the first time ever - credit where it's due, it's really good. That's until the "euphoric strings" come in. I'd say its a casualty of its era - would have sounded much, much better if it'd been part of the early 90s dance or early 00s electro scene.

 

Going to give 'We Like To Party' a listen next as I've kinda forgotten how it ever went.

Going to give 'We Like To Party' a listen next as I've kinda forgotten how it ever went.

 

Good grief....

 

Out Of The Blue is magnificent, I've just put it on and it still gives me shivers all these years later. The first time I heard it I was at Gatecrasher and I remember desperately trying to find out what it was for weeks after (which was so much more difficult to do in the days before internet!) before eventually tracking down a white label copy of it in the local record shop. I can also recall that I was wearing silver trousers and a fluffy bright blue t-shirt when I heard it, I thought this was unbelievably cool at the time but I must have looked a right idiot!!!

I hope y'all are listening to this version

 

 

I don't think there's really a problem with a cracking track having the hall marks of its era (unless you really dislike the era).

this one is really worth a listen if you love trance music, one of my faves :heart:

 

or if you like it long here's the

 

a #22 hit in 1999 so probably won't appear here.

 

This one also made #22 the same year (not sure how it was that low, it's one of the big trance classics)

 

Thanks DanG. Carte Blanche is great - I have it on 12".

(unless you really dislike the era).

 

There's the rub. Probably the best late 90s trance song I've heard, but I just can't stand those high-pitched synths that seemed to dominate that time.

There's the rub. Probably the best late 90s trance song I've heard, but I just can't stand those high-pitched synths that seemed to dominate that time.

 

 

They do the trick in a club.

They do the trick in a club.

 

 

How do you rate Paul van Dyke's For An Angel?

I know 2 people who actually bought their album.

 

I almost bought it from Our Price in April 1999 but instead I bought New Radicals “You Get What You Give” and Divine Comedy “National Express” on CD Single.

When I told my Dad that I wanted it, he tactfully suggested I buy something else that comes to £5 or less.

 

Thanks Dad!

Mr. Oizo - Flat Beat

 

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm82/TheMagicPosition86/rsz_flat_beat_zpshzhv4pul.png

 

Date 28th March 1999

3 Weeks

Official Chart Run 1-1-2-8-17-19-27-41-50-51-53-51-70-XX-83-86-87-89-62-60 (15 weeks)

*Positions in red are the weeks when the track would be number 1 if just dance music was chart eligible.

 

In a week where we could be just as well talking about “Out Of The Blue” by System F (new at 14) or “Windowlicker” by Aphex Twin (new at 16) we are instead discussing the repetitive low-key electro bassline of “Flat Beat”, the last hurrah of more than a decade long tie-in of chart topping music synced Levi’s adverts - in this instance performed by 1-hit-wonder French producer and now film director Quentin Dupieux and his yellow partner Stéphane (reborn as Flat Eric).

 

Apart from a few vocal snatches from The Fatback Band’s “Put Your Love (In My Tender Care)” and an opening name-check of Quentin himself - “Flat Beat” is for all intents and purposes an entirely instrumental #1 hit - the first in the UK since Simon Park Orchestra in 1973 and last until Martin Garrix in 2013; Quentin also became the first Frenchman to have a #1 since Charles Aznavour topped the chart with “She” in 1974. Quentin Dupieux (aka, Mr. Oizo) as well as being a talented electronic producer had a keen passion for film making and directing, which led him to be invited by fellow French dance producer Laurent Garnier to direct the video to 1997s “Flashback”. After this success he started directing music videos for his own music, the first of which “M Seq” was typical of Dupieux’s minimalist French electro style, and the video of which with his favourite puppet Stéphane inspired the aforementioned Levi’s ad the following year.

 

Dupieux (just 24 at the time) was invited by Levi’s to direct the advert and produced the uncompromisingly relentless and anti-commerical beat of “Flat Beat” to accompany it (though only 20 seconds were used in the ad), of which after initially airing in January 1999 rapidly went viral across the UK - thanks mostly to the directing and physical comedy of mute head banging puppet Flat Eric - forcing Dupieux to release the track as a single, where it duly blasted to #1 on sales of 284K. Splitting the public right down the middle between those who thought it unlistenable and those who lived for all five-and-a-half minutes of its full edit, despite only really making sense within the context on the advert the single went on to become the 9th biggest of 1999 and “Flat Beat” ended up overshadowing his entire career.

 

banger alert!!! :dance:

 

I'd like to think that sick bassline was the main reason for the song's big success (other than being featured in a viral advert and the Flat Eric music vid of course)

Disliked it at the time. Dislike it now. Just listened to it now. Awful.

 

One of the best weeks for releases for the whole decade - as you said Out of the Blue and Windowlicker entered the charts, and also TLC's No Scrubs too. All three are highlights of their respective genres - if you consider Windowlicker as part of any genre. I have Windowlicker and Out of the Blue on 12" and I must look out of No Scrubs on vinyl, if it was ever released.

This pissed me off big time at the age of 10 as it beat, of all things, 'Witch Doctor' by The Cartoons to the top - I have a Funfax book from the time where I give it one out of five stars. But I've warmed to it since and I love how something this uncommercial not only made #1 but sold so well.

 

an entirely instrumental #1 hit - the first in the UK since Simon Park Orchestra in 1973 and last until Martin Garrix in 2013

 

'Animals' had one (heavily distorted) line of lyrics, didn't it? And Flat Beat had that opening (or closing in the video's edit) sample which sounds like "Oh yeah, I used to know Quinnan, he's a real...he's a real jerky" but probably isn't...although in Flat Beat's case it is obviously a spoken sample rather than actual recorded lyrics, and appears seperate from the song so I guess Flat Beat at least does count. Wikipedia lists 'Doop' as one too but that has its title said about a million times during it.

 

Instrumental dance hits can be hard to call as most radio edits have the title of the song added into them ("Carte...Blanche!" "I feel you...over the Airwave" etc) so people know the name of it when they try and buy it. But there are a few that escaped this and still sold tons - Darude's 'Sandstorm' being the biggest that comes to mind.

Edited June 4, 20169 yr by BillyH

'Animals' had one (heavily distorted) line of lyrics, didn't it?

Yep, "we're the f*cking animals" is said twice in the song and other than that it's fully instrumental.

 

'Animals' had one (heavily distorted) line of lyrics, didn't it? And Flat Beat had that opening (or closing in the video's edit) sample which sounds like "Oh yeah, I used to know Quinnan, he's a real...he's a real jerky" but probably isn't...although in Flat Beat's case it is obviously a spoken sample rather than actual recorded lyrics, and appears seperate from the song so I guess Flat Beat at least does count.

 

Hence why I wrote Apart from a few vocal snatches from The Fatback Band’s “Put Your Love (In My Tender Care)” and an opening name-check of Quentin himself.

...that's quite embarrassing of me, yep sorry :unsure: Missed that line.

Still don't care about Flatbeat.

Still don't care about Flatbeat.

 

 

It's awful as far as I'm concerned.