Tag: Toxiq

women who kick ass by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Enitu and Yul Tackle a Beloved and Iconic 70’s French Hit

Enitu and Yul is an emerging French electro pop duo that features two accomplished artists:

Enitu is a vocalist, who grew up in a musical home. Her father was a musician. With his encouragement, she began singing before she could speak. When she turned 11, she began studying at the conservatory and joined her first choir. By the time she turned 13, she joined her high school choir. She went on to study at Sorbonne Université, where she performed with he choir and orchestra, with which performed classical music in France and in Abu Dhabi.

Around the same time, she began to regular attend open mics across Paris and played with several bands, including one with her father. Last year, she began collaborating with French musician, sound designer and DJ Yul — and she’s working on her Yul-produced full-length, solo debut.

Yul is a musician, sound designer and DJ, who has created music for movies, theater and art installations. Back in 2004, he founded Résiste, which produces radio dramas, sound post-production, creates websites and manages artists. But in 2016, the company began releasing original material –including under his own name and with Toxiq, an act that saw him collaborating with Claire Deligny and Manuel Roland.

The pair’s latest single, sees them tackling France Gall‘s beloved and iconic, 1977 hit song “Si Maman Si.” The original is built around a Burt Bacharach-meets-70s Elton John-like arrangement of twinkling piano and soaring strings paired with Gall’s plaintive delivery. The Enitu and Yul cover subtly modernizes the song while retaining the original’s feel and spirit: Piano and strings are replaced with twinkling synths and thumping beats, while Enitu’s melody manages to bear an uncanny resemblance to Gall’s. It’s French chanson — but for those heartbroken souls crying in the corner of the club, desperate to go home.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Toxiq is a French electro pop act featuring two longtime 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.

Résiste Records released the duo’s debut EP Dans la bouche earlier this month. The EP features their critically applauded single “Drogue sure drogue douce” and their club-banging, synth-driven cover of  Bernard Lavillers‘ 1983 hit “Idées Noires” with Catherine Ringer.

The EP’s latest single, title track “Dans la bouche,” pairs Deligny’s sultry cooing with a sleek and percussive production featuring skittering, tweeter and woofer rattling beats, a wobbling yet propulsive bass synth line and the duo’s unerring knack for an infectious hook. The end result — to my ears, at least — is a song that sort of sounds like sensual and slick synthesis of Munich Machine and Yelle.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: French Pop Duo Toxiq Release a Club Banging Take on an 80s French Smash Hit

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.