Vice never made it to to the special CHAPMAN BROS All Tomorrow's Parties down in Camber Sands but we heard good things about it. Everyone who witnessed it says the freakiest incident happened during Peaches' performance when she started crowd-surfing while doing "Fuck The Pain Away". Whether it was an accident or not, she claimed someone fingered her mid-surf as she was passed around on top of the crowd (can you finger someone by accident? I suppose your hand could slip or something and then…shudder) and she understandably went mental and cut her set short. Ew.

The reason we didn't go is because that same weekend I was invited by the French Music Bureau in London to attend the huge Transmusicales festival in Rennes, Brittany, which is now in its 26th year and takes place in these giant warehouses outside the city, like the night-time mega-rave complex at Sonar in Barcelona. The point of this three-day event is to introduce new bands and DJs from around the world to thousands of French folk, so you get dodgy acts like The Infadels and The Rakes who normally play to 16 friends at the Rhythm Factory doing the biggest gig of their career on a massive stage to an audience who's never heard of them, and probably never will again. The Beastie Boys and Kraftwerk headlined but if you've seen the German robots before then watching them a second time do exactly the same set doesn't quite knock you out. They slipped in the UR remix of "Expo 2000", though, and afterwards the Optimo DJs mixed up everything from Brian Wilson to Ricardo Villalobos in a sterling attempt to halt a rapidly emptying arena. It'd be easy to moan about groups like Kasabian and Goldie Lookin Chain, who hold your attention for about two songs each then descend into farce, so let's focus on the positive. London five-piece Hot Chip were a revelation. You can tell they're a bunch of music nuts who adore Prince and Luciano and Stevie Wonder and Boards Of Canada because their influences ooze out of their incredible songs; it's no wonder the DFA want to work with them. Main Chips Alexis and Joe have crazy singing voices and the way they all play each other's synths (they use five in a Kraftwerk-like row) and goof about makes for a top spectacle. And then Vitalic played live on the final night and fucking annihilated the place. Trust me when I say that Pascal Arbez's debut album, released in a couple of months, will define 2005; it's beautiful and primal and when he performs live it's like he's unlocked the secret of music and suddenly, during "My Friend Dario" or "La Rock 01", you just want to kiss everybody around you, even without drugs, and everyone wants to kiss you and you're all on the same magnificent champagne techno high. It's ridiculous.

Another crazy French album this year will be Daft Punk's third, which we've heard is an "organic rock" masterpiece called Human After All. Thomas and Guy-Manuel are still robots but the idea is they've returned to their roots—they began life as a rock band called Darlin', remember? As with Homework and Discovery, apparently each song is a concept within itself that relates to the whole LP No. 3 vibe which in turn slots perfectly into the over-arching Daft Punk paradigm. Sounds heavy but if anyone can pull it off, they can. More from France? How about the third compilation from Paris label Kitsuné, X, the theme of which was meant to be all things booty and pervy but ended up as another killer round-up of hip electro and bijou disco-pop. Trevor Jackson's new rock project, Post No Bills, debut with "Whatever", which is all right, and then there's new tracks by Joakim, Simian Mobile Disco, Hot Chip, DJ Assault and Volga Select, plus ace efforts by Personal Computer and Dieter Schmidt, who I think are more famous artists' pseudonyms.

Remember The Micronauts? The late-90s Parisian duo whose advanced acid-rave odysseys still sound out-of-control today? Well the talented one, George Issakidis, is back in business after a few years off sunbathing and writing code, with a new label called The Republic Of Desire (therepublicofdesire.com), which has already found its niche. Issakidis released one of his more Autechre-y efforts in 2003 but his new 12", "In Love", is this blissed-out post-rave E number that's backed by a sublime shuffle mix. The next release, by London's Midnight Mike, is "Midnight Drive", by far the best thing the producer's done, in my opinion. He describes it perfectly as a "pompous, monstrous, comic book techno caricature"; or it could easily be the missing link between Legowelt and Wolfgang Voigt, perhaps even the Doctor Who theme scored by Goblin. Either way, like everything on this label, it's an essential purchase.

Some fantastic bits from Geneva: Chaton & Hopen's "An Area" 12" on new label Plak, a succulent 12-minute granular groove backed by a remarkable avant-rave remix by Hrdvsion (aka Nathan Jonson, brother of Mathew); and an album on Imploz entitled Tales Of Unrest which unites 11 young Swiss producers, some of whom you may know, such as Crowdpleaser and Luciano's buddy Quenum, and others who you should, like Ben Larsen and Mirweis Sangin. Whatever, they all do that whole stoned minimal clickety techno thing beautifully.

VICE's Cocadisco night continues with the Simian Mobile Disco guys playing on Thursday, February 10, down at The Social (5 Little Portland Street, London W1; Oxford Circus tube), from 7p.m. to midnight, free.

PIERS MARTIN