Vitalic - Poney Part 1

Your correspondent and friends dancing to Poney Part 1 as played by renowned Dutch DJ I-f at Robot Disco Terror, Glasgow Brunswick Cellars, 2006

Pascal Arbez better known by his stage name Vitalic (born in 1976) is an electronic music artist. He was born in France.

His first singles were released in 1996 and 1997, but were confined to the underground electronic music scene. However, he became good friends with Michel Amato, also known as The Hacker, whom he met in the Rex, the "techno temple" of Laurent Garnier. The Hacker suggested he should send his new tracks to DJ Hell, head of Gigolo records in Munich. Pascal did so, and International DeeJay Gigolo Records released the well known Poney EP in 2001, which was a huge success shortly after its release.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitalic

This EP oozes sheer quality, one of the best Electro EP's I have ever heard. You all know La Rock the electro/techno fused monster, almost every DJ is playing it even some trance DJ's have been known to play it.

You prefer cocaine is on the more relaxed atmosphereic sounding electro tip, sounds alot like The Hacker - Fadin' Away (Dima Remix)

Will never part with this record till I die.  

djinsomnia

http://www.discogs.com/Vitalic-Poney-EP/master/35399 

If you only buy one dance record this year, buy this – twice – because you’ll wear out the first copy within days from playing it so much. It’s that good. Vitalic is unassuming Dijon producer and Citizen Records chief Pascal Arbez and the ‘Poney EP’, his worldwide club-conquering debut for DJ Hell’s Gigolo label, boasts four hugely differing tracks of ecstatic champagne techno, at least two of which, ‘Poney 1’ and ‘Poney 2’, are inspired by those miserable ponies you see giving beaming children rides at funfairs.

Add ‘You Prefer Cocaine’’s disco Bon Jovi hedonism and the scuzzy euphoria of ‘La Rock O1’ and you have, hands down, one of the most striking – and whistlable – singles in years.
Piers Martin
http://www.nme.com/reviews/6471



whenever i listen to sylvester’s “(you make me feel) mighty real,” i think, “this is music to snort coke to.” or, more craftfully, “mighty real” played as bianca j. got off one white horse and onto another in studio 54. the production is oleaginous and there’s an amphetamine-kick in its acceleration, but the intensity of sylvester’s vocal, an almost gospel-like fervor, suggests bright lights and packed dancefloors.

listening to vitalic’s poney ep, and “poney part 1″ in particular, makes for a similar yet obverse experience. gone are the strobes and dancing girls, replaced instead by dark alleys and desperate men (and women). the production is not so far removed from sylvester: there’s a similar thickness, but the darker elements of the former are amplified and the kick drum seems uncannily persistent. synthesizers scream and vocals processed from a bad dream call out to the listener — if one chooses to accept it at face value, it’s music to mainline heroin to.

or maybe it’s the music that plays when miss kittin and her famous friends have sex every night in the back of her limousine, which is to say that, beneath the surface, it might just mean nothing at all. i can make one link between “mighty real” and “poney” with no vacillation whatsoever: no matter one’s drug of choice, and i’ve tried this at home, both still sound fantastic. and you can dance to them too.
fred
http://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2002/06/vitalic-poney-part-1/ 

With the possible exception of a certain French house duo whose name we won't bring up quite just yet, it's difficult to think of another dance act whose career ascent has been as storybook as Pascal Arbez's. After toiling for years in relative obscurity under the aliases Dima (as good as the name suggests) and Hustler Pornstar (uh, ditto), the Frenchman didn't just draw blood with Vitalic's 2001 Poney EP, he lopped a few arteries. Seriously, it's hard to overstate the response to Poney; of its four tracks, three became high-tide dancefloor staples. Along with the dark, yawning electro of "Poney Part 1" and "Poney Part 2", there was the centerpiece "La Rock 01", still the reigning champion of songs that sound like paper shredders orgying in a wind tunnel.

While everyone from 2 Many DJs to Aphex Twin to Sven Väth was busy corking their sets with one (or two, or three...) tracks from Poney, Arbez was studiously lifting a few PR moves from his contemporaries, first by playing up his anonymity and later by concocting an elaborate backstory that involved a Ukrainian upbringing, animal fur trading, male prostitution, and the fall of the Berlin Wall. Despite being offered enough shows to keep him busy until the fall of the Wailing Wall, Arbez chose his live engagements carefully. He applied a similar selectivity to his output, issuing only a few 12"'s and a handful of choice remixes over the next few years.
Mark Pytlik
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/8538-ok-cowboy/