A love letter to the originators of French house music….
There is no question that over the past couple of years there has been a resurgence in quality electro/house music coming out of France. Spearheaded by the Ed Banger Records crew lead by long time Daft Punk evangelist Pedro “Busy P” Winter. Acts like Justice, Kavinsky, Sebastian, and Surkin have defined a harder, more electro and rock inspired take on “French Touch.” But core to it all…..is house. Of course, the original house forefathers from Chicago and Detroit spawned it all but more specifically, for todays discussion, the producers who drove the first big house movement out of France back in the early to mid 90’s. It was a sound inspired by disco, funk, and hip hop. Producers and record labels such as Buffalo Bunch, Alan Braxe, Fred Falke, Modjo, Benjamin Diamond, Diamond Traxx, Play Paul, Raw Man, Sebastien Leger, Jess and Crabbe, Roulé, Crydamoure, We In Music, Fiat Lux, Cassius, and many others. And of course…Daft Punk (prior to the freak accident in their studio that morphed them into the robots we know and love today). Check this page out to see a laundry list of the amazing records I am referring to and the samples used to make them.
As a kid who grew up on rock and hip hop it was these producers and this music that really got me interested in house music. The “French Touch” sound melded together all my favorite parts of the genres that I loved into a new and exciting format. So this one goes out to them. Your music still continues to move me and others. Both newbies and long time fans. Cheers!
In the spirit of sharing (and in some cases…education) we have bundled up a few favorites for your enjoyment.
French house goodness can be downloaded here.
And as an added bonus, here is one of the masters at work at a recent gig in Australia. Fred Falke rocking the live bass in the mix!!
April 25th, 2008 at 4:25 am
Ohhh, thank you for the French Goodies download! I’m not sure if I ever told you guys how much I love you for doing that kind of thing.
Do you know the French band High Tone? It doesn’t really fit into the line of Daft Punk and Justice; but it is (dub-) electronic, and I really dig it and you might too.
April 25th, 2008 at 7:42 am
You are very welcome! High Tone sounds familiar but I can think of a song of theirs off the top of my head. Will definitely look them up though.
April 25th, 2008 at 8:48 am
Cool! I can definitely recommend their song “Enter The Dragon”.
April 25th, 2008 at 11:26 am
Great stuff. Thanks much! Would you remember which artist (I think they were French) did that huge underground house hit that had a diva going “gimme love”… was from 10 years or so ago.
April 25th, 2008 at 11:34 am
Hmmmmm….. Not sure. Was it Peter Heller “Big Love”?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=416iiYA7wsU
May 2nd, 2008 at 2:37 pm
Josh, I think you’re talkin about Cerrone and his hit “Give me love” that was released in ‘77, he did a come-back with this title with a remixed version in 2002.
http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=PDBG91hgW4Q