1999
Two of the most revered producers and remixers of the French Invasion, Phillipe Zdar and Hubert Blanc-Francard more than have the skills to toss off crates of jiggy dance product if they so desired. But on their debut as Cassius, they've created something very different, a seamlessly postironic piece of abstract hip-house that's so off-kilter and fun, it feels subversive. Subtle gospel samples and a bluesy '30s trumpet bring on the opener, "Cassius 1999," then flip it into a flashy Latin electro super-digitale, and it's a good clue to where this whole thing wants to go. Thus we find plus-sized freestyle bass lines blithely slung under thevit-vitof old-school acid or a hard-house shuffle invaded both by toony synth arpeggios and liquid cobalt washes à laRichard James. Somehow, Cassius make it all cook.1999more than lives up to its unreasonable advance hype--a gorgeous and surprisingly restrained showcase for twovisionaires.--Steve Lafreniere