My recent trip to Paris reminded me that, unlikely as it may seem, Princess Superstar's My Machine wasn't the first insane concept album tackling the vagaries of modern fame to feature pop stars turning into cereal. The last time i visited was to see Alizee, supported by the bizarre cartoon collective One-T - a group of dancers with giant styrofoam heads accompanied, at the time, by a five-foot-tall female rapper. I'm not entirely sure of their origins but i believe they were the creation of Thomas Pieds, a video director and animator, and Eddy Gronfier a record producer who may or may not have had something to do with Superfunk.

The predominantly ten-year-old audience lapped it up and they went on to have a huge hit across Europe with the single The Magic Key. In the context of the album, the sleeve notes explain, the single's about one of the characters, Cool-T, "a mad rasta illegal immigrant" being killed by the police and going on to become the group's guardian angel. The whole record tells the story of One-T, a thirteen-year-old street punk DJ with a mission to relegate the French Touch musical style to the dustbin of history, and his battle not to be corrupted by record label owner and "gangland boss" Travoltino. On his quest, he's accompanied by a cute dog, Japanese twins and a jovial drug pusher called Acidman who "develops and distributes his own Class A with an explosive chemical formula: 25% amphetamine, 25% ketamine, 25% caffeine and 25% Windowlene". Can you imagine what the Daily Mail would do with that over here?

Much of the music puts paid to the idea that it's nothing more than a novelty record. The unquestionable highlights are two bouncy, housey, disco-pop songs with the vocals of Virginie Tesniere, Music Is The One-T ODC and Bein' A Star.


Buy One-T Stuff


One-T - Bein' A Star