Mr Oizo – Flat Beat

It was one of those fantastic ruptures in the creative continuum. A goofy yellow puppet, a dissociative atmosphere, a walloping analogue bassline, all beamed into millions of living rooms thanks to a mega corporation. 20 years ago, “Flat Beat” was inescapable, thanks to the track and the Flat Eric puppet—both created by Quentin Dupieux, AKA Mr Oizo—featuring on a Levi’s advert. It was one of those lovely moments for dance music lovers: to see a bit of our culture in the mainstream, to see people nonplussed by or even enjoying a proper bit of weird electronic sound and offkey raver humour. It didn’t seem to be anything more than that—at least at first. Really, we thought, it was a small curio, a fleeting moment of fun.