Defected in the House @ Ministry of Sound, London (Sat Oct 6, 2007)

DJs Martin Solveig, Dj Gregory, Claude Monnet, D Fused, Digital, Hardsoul, Simon Dunmore, Ralph Moore, Tony Garvey, Live: Shovell  

House

The French music revolution strikes back with an audio assault on MOS. When we talk of house music we often think of Chicago, New York, Berlin, Amsterdam and London, but it is not only those cities that have an innovative and thriving house scene. Paris is a creative centre for many of the arts and its innovation for house music is no different. It’s the city where the ‘French Touch’ sound first developed and it became famous at the turn of the century by DJ’s such as Dimitri from Paris and Daft Punk who started playing around with disco filters. The Paris house sound has also been embraced and pioneered by other great DJ’s from the city notably Martin Solveig, DJ Gregory and Claude Monnet who all come together for a rare appearance on Oct 6 th at The Ministry of Sound.

I think they have something to prove - to show us exactly how the French do it better! Headlining the event is Martin Solveig who is best know as the (still) young and slightly geeky Parisian house producer who brought us the hit record ‘Rocking Music” with its Justin Timberlake sounding vocal and unforgettable guitar riff that became a club anthem across the world. He also produced ‘Madan’ a project where he worked with Salif Keita also known as the ‘Golden voice of Africa’ which received worldwide airplay. His DJ style is energetic and unique and features a great deal of world rhythms and percussion beautifully blended into tough house beats.ഊDJ Gregory is another shining example of unique French talent best known for his involvement with Bob Sinclars ‘Africanism’ project. . He is a mad genius who plays with musical ideas and sounds. His best known productions are ‘Elle’ (recently re-mixed and released by DJ’s ‘du jour’ Ame from Berlin), this is a record that seldom leaves most respectable DJ’s record boxes. Also his productions ‘Tropical Soundclash’ and ‘Don’t Know Malendro’ are all absolute classics.

Completing the bill is Claude Monnet (actually of Italian Origin) who is the right hand man for Martin Solveig, working with him on their Mixture label. He is a well known producer and remixer who has worked with many of the top tier dance artists in France including Laurent Garnier and Dimitri from Paris. He has a jazzy and funky style with a definite Afrobeat flavour. In the bar we have our Dutch friends Hardsoul, two talented brothers from Amsterdam who have been recently voted the most popular DJ’s in Holland. They have famously pioneered the Dutch house sound battling against the universal sound of trance and winning. They are celebrating the release of their new compilation album D Fused & Digital out in Oct on Defected. They are joined by label boss Simon Dunmore and Shovell (M People) on percussion.