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**Vitalic - OK Cowboy**
★★★★☆

In the pantheon of French electronic music, Pascal Arbez-Nicolas stands as something of an anomaly. While his compatriots were busy crafting pristine filter-disco confections, the Dijon-born producer was holed up in his bedroom studio, channeling the ghost of Giorgio Moroder through a bank of vintage synthesizers and a healthy obsession with spaghetti westerns. The result was OK Cowboy, a debut album that landed in 2005 like a meteor from planet disco, leaving craters in dancefloors across Europe and establishing Vitalic as electronic music's most unlikely gunslinger.

The seeds of OK Cowboy were planted years earlier when Arbez-Nicolas, then a struggling musician bouncing between rock bands, discovered the intoxicating possibilities of electronic production. Armed with little more than an Atari computer and a collection of second-hand synths, he began crafting what he termed "electronic rock" – a hybrid beast that married the propulsive energy of techno with the theatrical bombast of arena rock. The Vitalic project emerged from these bedroom experiments, taking its name from a vitamin advertisement and its aesthetic from a lifetime of B-movie westerns and science fiction films.

What makes OK Cowboy such a thrilling ride is its complete disregard for the prevailing winds of mid-2000s electronic music. While minimal techno was having its austere moment and blog house was busy being ironically detached, Vitalic went maximalist with the fervor of a true believer. This is electronic music with its chest puffed out and its six-shooters drawn, unashamed of its own melodrama and all the more powerful for it.

The album's calling card, "My Friend Dario," remains one of the most exhilarating pieces of dance music ever committed to vinyl. Built around a relentless four-four thump and a synth line that sounds like it was beamed down from a disco spaceship, the track is pure kinetic energy made manifest. It's the sound of robots learning to feel joy, and it hits with the force of a religious conversion. The accompanying music video, featuring Arbez-Nicolas as a leather-clad cowboy in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, perfectly captured the album's fusion of retro-futurism and western mythology.

"La Rock 01" serves as the album's mission statement, a seven-minute epic that builds from ominous drones to euphoric release with the patience of a master storyteller. The track's central motif – a grinding, distorted riff that could have been lifted from a Carpenter film soundtrack – becomes hypnotic through repetition, while layers of percussion and melody accumulate like gathering storm clouds. It's prog rock for the post-rave generation, complete with the requisite pretensions and undeniable power.

Elsewhere, "Poney Part 1" gallops along on a rhythm that sounds like mechanical horses, while "Newman" deploys its arsenal of bleeps and bloops with military precision. "Repair Machines" finds beauty in malfunction, its stuttering beats and glitched-out melodies suggesting a world where technology has developed its own form of consciousness. Throughout, Arbez-Nicolas demonstrates an intuitive understanding of dynamics, knowing precisely when to pull back and when to unleash the full force of his sonic arsenal.

The album's production deserves special mention – this is electronic music with genuine weight and presence, each element occupying its own space in the mix while contributing to the larger sonic tapestry. The bass frequencies have genuine heft, the highs sparkle without shrillness, and the midrange carries melodies that burrow into your consciousness and refuse to leave.

Nearly two decades after its release, OK Cowboy's influence can be heard throughout electronic music, from the theatrical maximalism of Justice to the retro-futurist fantasies of modern synthwave. It proved that dance music didn't need to choose between emotion and energy, that it was possible to be both deeply moving and utterly physical. In an era of increasingly algorithmic music production, the album stands as a testament to the power of individual vision and the importance of taking creative risks.

Vitalic may have been shooting for the moon with OK Cowboy, but he hit his target square between the eyes. This is electronic music as Saturday matinee serial, complete with heroes, villains, and enough explosive action to leave you breathless. Saddle up, partner – this ride