November 8, 2000
Champs Elysées
An international disco playboy in the sense that he recently played some records in a sticky Soho strip joint
An international disco playboy in the sense that he recently played some records in a sticky Soho strip joint, Bob Sinclar has nevertheless made the most of his meagre talent over the years. Rarely photographed without a pair of buxom bikinied ladies draped around his weedy French frame, Sinclar is best known as the peddlar of frisky smut-house anthem 'Gym Tonic' and, more recently, this summer's anaemic Ibiza-endorsed 'I Feel For You'.
Not so much an album as an open invitation to splash on the Brut and slip into a tight pink Lacoste shirt, 'Champs Elysées' is Sinclar's second collection of sequin-studded cake boy funk - his 1998 debut, 'Paradise', rightly sunk without trace. Still, encouraged by this year's blanket eulogising of New York's early-'80s club culture, Sinclar has unearthed American disco fossil James 'D-Train' Williams to perform vocals on 'Got To Be Free', though much of 'Champs Elysées' is a feeble facsimile of those fabled times.
A predictable whirl of artificial strings, filtered loops and strident glitterball house, it's clear Sinclar doesn't have an original idea in his impeccably coiffured head. Indeed, if it's a gay old time you're after, you'd be better off watching The Flintstones.
Piers Martin
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