Saturday 22 August 2009

Nostalgia


Here at So Culture, we love anything that has a remotely '80s disco style vibe which makes up a huge portion of the current Parisian music scene. Of course, when I say 'we', I mean 'I'. The revival of this sound has come in many different shapes and sizes, influencing a sizeable portion of today's musicians. On a broader scale, it's not hard to notice that electro has snuck it's way into the charts through the likes of Lady GaGa and Kanye West, who have taken a leaf out of this scene. For example, Kanye clearly soaked up a lot of french touch as his career progressed; videos directed by french elecro label Ed Banger's So Me, his track with Daft Punk and the electronic production heard on 808's & Heartbreak. Lady GaGa uses vintage synths more often than not and this is one of reason's I think she's become so successful; everyone's loving that sound. This post is about that sound in a more unadulterated form than from what you might hear on the charts.

Washed Out - Feel It All Around
This is one nostalgic, lo-fi heat haze of a disco dreamwave track. If this song were a day, it would be incredibly hot and humid. You'd be sleepily staring out the window in the back of a camper van as it rattles along a dusty, rural road.

Data - Aerius Light (Breakbot Remix)
Although Breakbot is not the most well-known, for me, he is a definitive character of the french touch scene. Because of this, it's no surprise that the label belonging to Busy P (otherwise known as Pedro Winter), 'Ed Banger', scouted out Breakbot and signed him. His music encompasses all of that which I associate with that retro funky electro sound; highly processed drums, old-school synths and catchy bass hooks with an all round choppy finish. This french electro remix of a french electro track is, unsurprisingly, no exception.

Delorean - Deli
Delorean craft -real- pop music. Deli captures a true holiday, summer-nights disco vibe with a guitar sound that's been missing in great pop music for the past 20 years.

Justice - D.A.N.C.E. (Yuksek Edit)
I think of Yuksek in a very similar way as Breakbot, especially his choice to take on this track which has reached legendary status in the world of the electro hipster. A modest but probably more accurate decision to label this rework as an edit as opposed remix, Yuksek gives that track a little more french electro oomph than before.

Also, I feel obliged to post the new Friendly Fires track as I now have a decent version of it - it's not live and it's not a radio rip! So in all it's tropical, tribal, shimmering and euphoric glory, I give you the indie electro pioneers' latest track:

Friendly Fires - Kiss Of Life
Although this isn't too closely related to the rest of today's post, if it was any better, it could send you into an epic disco seizure. That's also pretty fun I guess. Besides, Friendly Fires said themselves one day they're gonna live in Paris.

Ahh it feels good to get a post in that isn't all over the place and has some kind of direction. I hope you enjoyed reading.

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