Note: this is part of an ongoing series on French house / French touch. For more, click here.
Cosmo Vitelli (real name: Benjamin Boguet) is a Paris-based DJ who's been releasing quality dance music since the late 90's.
It pains me (as his biggest fan by a pretty large margin, at least according to last.fm) to say it, but Cosmo Vitelli is a marginal figure in the history of French touch. Part of the reason for this is the simple fact that most of his output doesn't really fit the French touch mold. Maybe his best-known stuff, like his remixes of Daft Punk's "Face to Face" and Cassius' "The Sound of Violence", does. But otherwise? He's definitely a black sheep.
The critical thing that sets Vitelli apart from his French touch brethren is that he's not particularly interested in warm, disco funkiness. While his fellow French touch-ers* streamlined disco funk for maximum dance floor effectiveness, Vitelli takes the two most criticized components of disco—its synthetic-ness and its sheer giddy cheesiness—and heightens them. His music is frostier, more robotic, and more remote than anything else under the French touch label. And as for the cheesiness... well, the lyrics to "Alias" are some weird sort of next-level ultra-meta-cheesy.
Cosmo Vitelli: "Alias" [zShare]
There's no pretending that that they're good in a straightforward, English major poetry analysis way—the spoken parts are especially groan-inducing— but they sound right in the context of the music. Sing-along-ability. And anyway, the production is pretty tight... right?
Here's his remix of Lacquer's "Behind" (originally heard on gabba POD), which is my favorite remix of his, and quite possibly the sleaziest thing I've ever heard.
Lacquer: "Behind" (Cosmo Vitelli Remix) [zShare]
I know I'm not doing too good a job of selling this here. Let me try again: "Cosmo Vitelli—he's relatively obscure, so saying that you like him is much cooler than saying you like Daft Punk, because everyone likes Daft Punk, and you're a special little snowflake!"
I think maybe I don't actually want you to download these songs. I sort of enjoy the feeling that I'm the only one (outside of all the DJs who've played and remixed his work) who really appreciates him. But I better get used to sharing: his Bot'ox project has a new single coming out on Death From Abroad (DFA's hugely hyped international division) and he's due to release a new solo album on his own I'm A Cliché label next month.
You can hear the new Bot'ox here and the new solo stuff here.
Buy an untold wealth of Cosmo Vitelli gems at GEMM.
*Sorry, I know that's beyond moronic, but that's the sort of goofy shit that amuses me.
Cosmo Vitelli (real name: Benjamin Boguet) is a Paris-based DJ who's been releasing quality dance music since the late 90's.
It pains me (as his biggest fan by a pretty large margin, at least according to last.fm) to say it, but Cosmo Vitelli is a marginal figure in the history of French touch. Part of the reason for this is the simple fact that most of his output doesn't really fit the French touch mold. Maybe his best-known stuff, like his remixes of Daft Punk's "Face to Face" and Cassius' "The Sound of Violence", does. But otherwise? He's definitely a black sheep.
The critical thing that sets Vitelli apart from his French touch brethren is that he's not particularly interested in warm, disco funkiness. While his fellow French touch-ers* streamlined disco funk for maximum dance floor effectiveness, Vitelli takes the two most criticized components of disco—its synthetic-ness and its sheer giddy cheesiness—and heightens them. His music is frostier, more robotic, and more remote than anything else under the French touch label. And as for the cheesiness... well, the lyrics to "Alias" are some weird sort of next-level ultra-meta-cheesy.
Cosmo Vitelli: "Alias" [zShare]
There's no pretending that that they're good in a straightforward, English major poetry analysis way—the spoken parts are especially groan-inducing— but they sound right in the context of the music. Sing-along-ability. And anyway, the production is pretty tight... right?
Here's his remix of Lacquer's "Behind" (originally heard on gabba POD), which is my favorite remix of his, and quite possibly the sleaziest thing I've ever heard.
Lacquer: "Behind" (Cosmo Vitelli Remix) [zShare]
I know I'm not doing too good a job of selling this here. Let me try again: "Cosmo Vitelli—he's relatively obscure, so saying that you like him is much cooler than saying you like Daft Punk, because everyone likes Daft Punk, and you're a special little snowflake!"
I think maybe I don't actually want you to download these songs. I sort of enjoy the feeling that I'm the only one (outside of all the DJs who've played and remixed his work) who really appreciates him. But I better get used to sharing: his Bot'ox project has a new single coming out on Death From Abroad (DFA's hugely hyped international division) and he's due to release a new solo album on his own I'm A Cliché label next month.
You can hear the new Bot'ox here and the new solo stuff here.
Buy an untold wealth of Cosmo Vitelli gems at GEMM.
*Sorry, I know that's beyond moronic, but that's the sort of goofy shit that amuses me.
