N just a couple of months, thanks to explosive live shows, radical remixes for daft punk, trabant, teki latex and most recently bloc party, para one turned from pioneer of the so-called new french sound to rising dance star. his debut album, epiphanie, is starting to come up in “best of 2006” lists and the first single off the album, dudun-dun, was clearly one of the biggest indie dance hits of the year. after the massive electro onslaught of “dudun-dun”, this second single showcases a somewhat softer side. midnight swim is almost a song, it’s a hymn to some strange, elegiac version of ibiza, shuffling in silicon sand. it’s balearic, affecting; it swells and engulfs. riton's latest rerub is pure angular, jumpy electro with the best synths you’ll hear for a long time. propulsive bassline, acid accents, intense mini-build-ups... it’s like errorsmith and switch meeting in erol alkan’s record box (erol actually happens to play the track, by the way). beckett & taylor laszlo beckett and steve taylor have made rather a good name for themselves notching up on matthew herbert's accidental imprint and on the plow label. the new masters of skewed house attack the dancefloor with a massive infrabass, supported by a wonderful army of smart vocal cuts and bouncy drums edits. surkin's remix is a masterpiece, managing to keep the emotional punch of the original while upping the dancefloor quotient with all sorts of early-house moves and ravey tricks: rapturous vocals, heavy keyboard action and, yeah, sirens.