Mirwais: Production : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

A former member of new wave band Taxi Girl, Mirwais Ahmadzai never achieved fame beyond his native France until video director Stephane Sednaoui dropped off his clip for Mirwais' "Disco Science" at Maverick Records. Undoubtedly impressed by his Daft Punk-y sonics, Madonna got the thirty-nine-year-old multi-instrumentalist on the phone, asked him to co-produce a chunk of her album and created an instant international audience for Production, Mirwais' solo electronica debut. The album also suggests the direction of Madonna's upcoming Music album, and not just because their moody collaboration "Paradise (Not for Me)" -- featuring a haunted bilingual vocal from the superstar -- is included on both discs. A longtime Kraftwerk fan, this Frenchman of Italian-Afghan heritage favors a stark, industrial throb that's going to contrast with Ray of Light producer William Orbit's warm 'n' cuddly gurgles. Hanging on a humming sample from the Breeders' "Cannonball," "Disco Science" suggests the bright buzz of humping transistor radios being whipped by the vacuum cleaner. On "Naive Song," an ironically bouncy bauble that evokes his synth-pop past, a digitally distorted Mirwais croons, "We're living in a happy world/We're living in a lonely world." His bright, plastic ennui could inspire a million asymmetrical Human League haircuts. (RS 849)

BARRY WALTERS