I've only just begun to fight!
Okay, as promised a few weeks ago, here is an update on another layer of the Parisian underground dance music scene...
You may recall I posted a track by young scenester datA - some of you were feeling it, some of you were not. Fine and fair enough. You like Justice more? Okay, they're making some really singular music, and I understand your bias, as the bar has been raised, which is a good thing.
Well, here's another piece of the puzzle. Para One, aka Jean-Baptiste de Laubier, has been making some seriously crazy dance music for a while now - he is credited for production of many many tracks by the French electro-hip-hop group TTC, as well some serious remixes (check the Daft Punk remix on his Myspace page), AND he's been producing totally crazy tracks for himself for some time now. This track is the first single off his new full-length, Epiphanie, which is scheduled for release on June 6th (or 6/6/06 - yo?!?!). Which, if it sounds anything like this track - huge synths throughout, killer thudding kick-drums and the breakdown 'ah ah ah ahhhh's (are you kidding me?) - will be massive. Massive.
Basically Para One's work is a perfect distillation of the modern-French-touch scene (why didn't I write that article first?!?) - the biggest movers and shakers, and folks with the most name-recognition here in the States, have thus-far been the Ed Banger stable (Justice, SebastiAn and Busy P) and the Kitsune kids (see their compilations Kitsune Love, Midnight, X and Maison for reference), BUT, I think we've got another one-to-watch, with the label that is releasing Para One's work, Institubes. Another monster producer to watch in their corner is Surkin... I'll see if I can't get something from him up here soon too (plus they've got these insane 'Cuizinier' mix CDs...).
At the moment, the best place to buy Institubes releases is the storefront that the Ed Banger peeps have going of Arcade Mode (where you can also buy Ed Banger releases and a handful of other rad French labels -- thank you Jean-René for the correction), but I'm hoping to maybe get their records into some more American stores - only time will tell on that front, but hey, I'm trying my best to get these Parisian cats' tunes into your earholes, because it makes me totally crazy, and I hope it does the same for you!
Vive la France!!