 |
The Toxic Avenger is a fitting moniker for French DJ/producer Simon Delacroix. In the 1984 cult horror flick, tormented weakling Melvin Ferd III falls into a drum of toxic waste, and the beneficial side effect to all the pesky disfigurement and chemical burns is newly acquired super-human size and strength. Delacroix himself is just your standard goofy Parisian, but as Toxie, his glitchy, muscular electro is pure, mutant disco. Five long years ago the Toxic Avenger burst onto the bloghaus and indie-dance scenes with the iheartcomix-issued Superheroes EP, and a handful of releases and more than 60 remixes later (including buzzsaw reboots for Ladytron, Heartsrevolution, and Le Castle Vania), Delacroix finally delivers his debut long-player in Angst. Whereas the EDM dance circles that once bumped his monster tracks "Bad Girls Need Love Too" and "Escape" have, for the most part, moved on to dubstep, Angst continues to mine Delacroix's knack for twisted, scrapyard electro thrash. "Alien Summer" — featuring Norwegian pop pixie-for-hire Annie — is a throbbing, mechanical crusher with crossover appeal (moreso than Felix Cartal's recent similar collabo with Maja Ivarsson of the Sounds), while "Never Stop" slows the beat down without letting up on the force. Delacroix maintains focus over 11 tracks (four of them under the "Angst" title), and though some of it sounds a bit dated (read: 2007), it's still a forward-moving take on a subgenre that was quickly forgotten.
