Mirwais Ahmadzai is a key figure in creating what is the flavor and sound of France. The once lead guitarist for pop-outfit Taxi Girl has had a lasting impact on native artists from Daft Punk to Air. His latest admirers include Madonna. Mirwais sat in with Madonna to conduct the direction of the upbeat dance tempos of Music. People who know of Mirwais’s talents have openly expressed the genius behind the beat.
The sampler is truly wonderful invention to music because with some intelligent programming and careful placed arrangements it allows producers to take something old and give it new life. “Disco Science” is a groovy hyper disco number that borrows the humming vocal sample from The Breeders’ hit single “Cannonball”. Again, we see Mirwais working the sampler with an adaptation of Serge Gainsbourg’s “Cargo Clute”. The final result is a down tempo drug hazy track called “V.I.” If you’re a fan of Pop Will Eat Itself you may recognize the bass line from the song “Home” off their stellar album, Dos Dedos Mis Amigos. The track I played again and again was the industrial breaks of “Definitive Beat”. The mixing is superbly tight as the beat cuts in and out they generate heavy mechanical wave like an old Ministry track.
Since the days of Taxi Girl, Mirwais has always been able to develop a poppy guitar hook. Now armed with a drum machine and sampler he has created a new genre in electronic music that combines multi-dimensional dance beats with pop sensibilities. You could call his style electro-pop. Listening to the poppy bounce of “Naive Song” you can tell why Madonna choose to work with Mirwais for Music. Take a listen to this song then put on Madonna’s newest single “Don’t Tell Me”. I think you’ll make the connection of styles. Madonna also makes an appearance on ambient “Paradise (Not For Me)”. You may not pick up on her voice right away because the intro is in French and she never breaks into song. Of the nine tracks featured on the record, “I Can’t Wait” a great example of Mirwais’s new hybrid sound of combining old school French funk/dance with a spaced age tech-pop.
+ Larry Sarzyniak
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