Mr. Oizo

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Mr. Oizo
Background information
Birth name	Quentin Dupieux
Also known as	Mr. Oizo
Born	April 14, 1974 (1974-04-14) (age 35)
Origin	France
Genres	Electronic Avant-Garde
Occupations	Producer
Instruments	Synthesizer, Sampler, Drum Machine, Computer
Years active	1991 - present
Labels	FCommunications, Ed Banger
Associated acts	Mr. Oizo
Website	Mr. Oizo at MySpace

Mr. Oizo (pronounced Monsieur Wah-zoh, deformation of the French word "oiseau", bird) is the pseudonym of French music producer and film producer Quentin Dupieux.

Quentin Dupieux AKA Mr. Oizo is a very successful French Electro house musician, mostly known for his 1999 track, "Flat Beat". Dupieux's first feature film, Steak[2], was released in France on June 20, 2007. [3] [4] Mr. Oizo's first EP released on Ed Banger Records is called Transsexual. The EP features a re-working of the 1979 disco track "Do It At The Disco" by Gary's Gang. The track appeared on Oizo's MySpace page in 2006 under the title Patrick122. On October 16, 2008, a video appeared on Oizo's Myspace page, a promo for his upcoming album, Lambs Anger. The First Single off the Record was "Positif", which was released 3 days after Lambs Anger. On March 15, 2009, the second EP off the album is released, Pourriture, featuring some self reworked titles by Oizo himself, and a remix of Erreur Jean, by Arveene & Misk. On September 25th, Oizo wrote on his Twitter feed that his next film would be titled "Rubber".^[1] Shooting started October 27th, 2009. In the November 2009 issue of Mixmag, Justice stated that they would be working on the soundtrack for Rubber, saying thay had to 'finish working on the soundtrack for Mr. Oizo's new film before we start recording for the new album,'

Beginning

Quentin Dupieux was born in 1974. At the relatively young age of 12, he found a camera and started taking pictures of anything and everything. At 17, he began to play music to illustrate his images, and bought his first synthesiser. In 1997, Laurent Garnier of F. Com bought a car from Mr Oizo's father. Garnier then found out about Dupieux's talents and let him direct the music video for his song "Flashback". Later Dupieux was signed by F. Com Records where he released his first EP fittingly titled, "#1".

Flat Beat

Flat Beat is a track with a repeated bass loop. As stated in an interview with XLR8R magazine he said that it took him 2 hours on a lazy Sunday afternoon with a Korg MS-20 to make. Dupieux is most known for this track, which became a hit throughout Europe in 1999 and was featured in a series of Levi's jeans TV commercials. Dupieux also directed the ad, which featured a yellow puppet named Flat Eric nodding his head to the sound of the track while riding in an old beat-up car. After "Flat Beat", Oizo spent two months locked up in a studio, creating his first full album, Analog Worms Attack. The Flat Beat EP has sold over 3 million copies.

Analog Worms Attack

Analog Worms Attack is Oizo's first album, released in 1999. The album's namesake is derived from the album's production - it was composed entirely using analog equipment. The record scratching effects were provided by Mr. Oizo's good friend, DJ Feadz. A bonus track known as appears after the 5 minutes of silence following the final track "Analog Wormz Sequel" - his million-selling single, Flat Beat. There are a total of 3 singles off of this album. A version of "No Day Massacre" without any record scratching exists on the Flat Beat EP, titled "Monday Massacre". The record is generally slow, with noticeable hip-hop influences in the style of Beastie Boys.

Moustache (Half a Scissor)

"Moustache (Half a Scissor)" was Mr. Oizo's second studio album, released in 2005 after a long hiatus. This album was composed using exclusively computers, as he had decided to eschew the use of analog equipment. The extensive time it took to remodel his studio and master the use of computers in composing electronic music is cited as the reason for the long hiatus between "Analog Worms Attack" and "Moustache (Half a Scissor)". Before its public release, a promo CD was put on the internet featuring 2 tracks not on the original release: CPU and Nazis. This album is his only to not be released on vinyl. There is another hidden track in this album, about 1 minute and 15 seconds after the last track Vagiclean, there is a short, untitled song full of bass and strange noises.

Lambs Anger

Lambs Anger is the first studio album released by Ed Banger Records, the label Mr. Oizo chose after his split with F Communications, who notoriously referred to "Moustache" as "unlistenable". It is composed of numerous dance tracks in a more mainstream electro style that are far less experimental-sounding than those featured on "Moustache (Half a Scissor)". "Positif" and "Pourriture" were chosen as the album's singles.

Production & Equipment

In his early years, Mr. Oizo used a Korg MS-20, an Akai S1000, and an Atari 1040 computer. Mr. Oizo is known currently for strong use of computers in his music. As he stated in an interview with XLR8R magazine, he started using computers to avoid having to plug in 4 different appliances, and because the result of music is more or less the same. His first album to switch to all computers was "Moustache (Half a Scissor)". In Lambs Anger, Mr. Oizo used a Macintosh G5 running Logic Pro to compose all of the songs. During his DJ sets, he uses a Macbook for the music alongside two CDJs for mixing.

Discography

Albums

• Analog Worms Attack (1999)
• Moustache (Half a Scissor) (2005)
• Steak (2007)
• Lambs Anger (2008)

Singles / EPs

• "#1" (1997)
• "M-Seq" (1997)
• "Flat Beat" (1999) UK #1
• "Last Night a DJ Killed My Dog" (2000)
• "Stunt" (2004)
• "Nazis" (2006)
• "Transsexual" (2007)
• "Positif" (2008)
• "Pourriture" (2009)

Remixes

Music videos/Filmography

• "Kirk" (1997)
• "M-Seq" (1999)
• "Flat Beat" (1999)
• "Nonfilm" (2001)
• "Analog Worms Attack" (1999)
• "Stunt" (2004)
• "Steak" (2007)
• "Making Lambs Anger" (2009)
• "Rubber" (2009)

External links

• Mr. Oizo on MySpace
• Mr. Oizo on Twitter
• Repcred - Respect: Flat Eric - Flat Beat music video (Flash)
• Mr. Oizo on Discogs
• Video Interview with Mr. Oizo
• Lambs Anger Album Review
• Video footage of Making Lambs Anger by Mr Oizo
• Review of Mr. Oizo's 'Pourriture' EP on the Daily Music Guide

References