Though French producer Madeon has been known in electronic circles for years—he’s been active under the moniker since 2010 and has appeared at Coachella and Ultra—it became increasingly clear last year that the 20-year-old (!) Hugo Pierre Leclercq had bigger conquests in mind. The instrumental "Imperium", the first released song from his new Adventure, was first featured on the soundtrack of the globally massive soccer video game "FIFA 15". This is a distinction that often breaks big artists to a world audience, and Madeon’s mixture of colorful, sample-heavy EDM and its attending uplifting lilt made for the perfect feel-good vibe directly before the complexity of the new "FIFA" made you want to hurl your controller through your brother’s flat screen.
With Adventure, Madeon’s debut LP, the producer presents a strikingly versatile collection. In a landscape filled with hot-on-paper-but-kinda-"eh" collaborations between big name vocalists and hip producers, Madeon deploys his guests (Passion Pit, R&B singer Kyan, Bastille frontman Dan Smith) with a stirring effectiveness. Album highlight "Pay No Mind" weaponizes Passion Pit's bright synth-pop for a stadium anthem, and the warmth of "La Lune" recalls a more laidback version of Bastille’s catchy hit "Pompeii". On tracks like "OK"—which features a Charli XCX sample culled from a scrapped collaboration—and "Pixel Empire", Madeon pays homage to 8-bit video game soundtracks, reminiscent of Rustie’s Essential Mix and the incomparable (yes, incomparable) "Donkey Kong Country" soundtrack all at once. While Adventure carries all the hallmarks of your usual skyscraping EDM release—stomping breakdowns, soaring choruses, maximalism-for-the-sake-of-it—it also straddles a fine balance between being a pop record and being a dance record.
Though not everything is as huge as its banner singles, more inward-looking tracks like the closer "Home" are arguably as successful. "Home" perhaps best exemplifies Madeon’s range, given that it’s one of the only songs on the album that features Leclercq’s vocals. Over a track that moves from delicate and glimmering to sweeping, Leclercq sings delicately before jumping into the thundering chorus. It’s a sweet note to end on, and marks a signpost for the young producer to follow, if he chooses that direction. The good thing about Adventure is that there are many markers like this; on the path to what feels like something huge, Madeon’s journey is just beginning.
