Sebastien Tellier - Kilometer

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  • A synth-pop Serge, Sebastien Tellier has built his career out of feeding Franco stereotypes by playing the boozy, ragged Lothario to the hilt. There are few in the game today who can pull off the image of the charismatic, sexual grifter with such dry dedication. Such an outsized persona would be little more than a novelty, however, had it not consistently been bolstered by Sebastien's undeniable melodic gifts and pop intuition. With its sleazy come-ons, huge Pop-Art sized synths and laid-back tempo, his latest, "Kilometer" sounds like a Justin Timberlake track at 3/4ths its normal strength, where boisterous American R&B drums have been downsized for more Franco-friendly percolation. The tune's got enough style and space, it seems to come ready for the remix. A-Trak's take re-tools it for the club, boosting the disco flair by liberally adding a speedy finger-bass and slashing string swoop. I imagine it's hard to rein-in one's remix tendencies when the song's refrain is "right over the top…" Arpanet detours from the floor to re-imagine the tune as a drugged-out sleazecapade, slowing things to a crawl, leaving only orgasmic moans and dark, sensual synth pads. It's so well-tailored for a horny back-room romp, it's a bit of a stretch to imagine it working well outside that specific context. Both these remixes are decent cuts, but when you're up against Aeroplane you're going to have to go harder than decent. The Belgian duo make the tune into the Italo monster it always wanted to be. Like fellow neo-discophiles Hercules & Love Affair, Aeroplane consistently turn in remixes that seem to sprout beautiful and full-formed as if from the head of Zeus. This is because they don't sound like remixes at all. Compare A-Trak's mix to Aeroplane's: in the former you'll here the vocal a bit awkwardly sped up, the extra instrumentation somewhat perfunctorily applied. In the latter, while it's abundantly clear that Aeroplane have gone to Daft Punk University and completed advanced degrees in wormy electro synths and quasi-Baroque riffage, their additions are neither heavy-handed nor forced.
  • Tracklist
      A1 Kilometer A2 Kilometer (A-Trak Remix) B1 Kilometer (Aeroplane "Italo 84" Remix) B2 Kilometer (Arpanet Remix)
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