Mr. Oizo
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Grand Central, Miami
Better than: Standing in the hot sun at a certain electronic music festival.
If you missed Mr. Oizo's appearance at Grand Central Saturday night, don't worry, he'll be back. He's scheduled to appear at Ultra Music Festival next month. Problem is, if you are a fan of Quentin Dupieux you are going to have to shell out about $200 to see him perform for about 45 minutes.
Dupieux, of course, is part of the Ed Banger crew. But unlike Justice and SebastiAn, the electro-house label was unfairly applied to Mr. Oizo. His sound featured the jagged roughness that became the genre's calling card, but his mix is a mishmash of funk, soul, and disco and cinematic snippets -- which is to be expected considering Dupieux is an accomplished filmmaker.
Anyway, a Mr. Oizo DJ set is pretty much a carbon copy of what you've heard on his releases, particularly 2008's Lambs Anger. His mixing resembles a child with ADD. Just as you are getting comfortable grooving to the beat, Dupieux throws it in another direction. Normally, a crowd wouldn't tolerate this from a DJ, but it's sort of his signature. Plus, he does it well. Dupieux never sounds like he's losing control of his set or the crowd.
From the very beginning, when the name Mr. Oizo flashed across Grand Central's LED curtain, the crowd unrelentingly cheered him on with the universal sign of a good time: Everyone's hands up in the air.
Critic's Notebook
The Crowd: Sort of a South-Beach-meets-downtown crowd that we rarely ever see come together. Maybe it was the Grand Central bus' doing.
Overheard in the Crowd: "He's so fuckin' good."
Random Detail: Yes, he played "Positif."
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