Toxiq is an emerging French electro pop act featuring two long-term friends: Les Matchboxx’s Claire Deligny and Yul, a producer who specializes in a subtle yet percussive sound. Their collaborative project together draws from their 20+ year friendship and the years they’ve spent dancing, eating and crying together. Because of the pandemic, the project’s earliest batches of material were written and recorded at a distance — both physical and temporal.

Building upon a growing profile in the Francophone music world, the duo’s latest single finds the tackling Bernard Lavillers’ 1983 hit “Idées Noires” with Catherine Ringer. Interestingly, the Toxiq version of the song retains the alternating boy-girl verses and melody of the original but paired with an infectious, club banging production centered around layers of arpeggiated synths, and tweeter and woofer rocking beats.