France France France. Para One.

I don't know what's going on with France. I really don't. Everything awesome is coming out of there lately. Ever since before I wrote about remix culture and how this particular brand of it has exploded seemingly out of nowhere, more and more and more has come up and it's all been from France (okay, with the exception of Simian Mobile Disco, among a few others). Justice, Uffie (well okay, all of Ed Banger Records), The Teenagers (who don't completely fall under this, but their remixes definitely do), and Para One, whom I just discovered today (yeah yeah yeah, sometimes things fly completely over my head). I know there's more. Help me out, guys.

Para One's stuff is really, really catchy. I just read about him in Earplug and found out that he's recently made the switch (this seems to be a trend in Paris right now) from hip hop to club music. The thing is, this isn't your typical club music that you would find in trendy places here in New York, all the girls wearing backless tops. This is different. Like I said in my reflections on the Dafterparty, these guys have a good time. They don't seem to care about who's looking. There is no pretension. Unlike the "I don't smile" attitudes of these other clubbers (or NY hipster socialites), this is what Para One does:


(which reminds me a lot of Teddybears, who played last night at Hiro):


The animal head thing - whether it's a trend or coincidence - is proof of this. It has to be. I mean, look at what Para One does to a dance floor. Nobody standing around and posing for the camera. They don't even think of it, they're too busy dancing their faces off and even sometimes injuring themselves doing so.




Sometimes when I'm really excited about something, I have problems articulating myself. But I guess what it is here is simple: they just want to make people smile and move. That's it. The energy clearly comes through in it all. When my roommate asked me what kind of music I was about to dance to last night, I shrugged and said "neon."

EDIT | I just realized the sheer idiocy it takes to rave about dance music that makes you unable to sit still, but only offer text and non moving visuals. Sorry guys. Here is Para One's video for dundun-dun. It looks like something Vice might shoot - a bunch of hot girls having a pillow fight, feathers blowing everywhere. Somehow milk got brought into the picture too.

Now, dance.