Piazza, Marten Lou, Notre Dame, Irfane, Sem Jacobs, Folamour, BreakBot, Upsilone, and Étienne de Crécy

Breakbot (the stage name Thibaut Berland goes by) is of the French school of Electro House that gave us Sebastian, Justice, and Mr. Oizo among others (I’m sure Daft Punk must have at some point, somehow been a part of the family tree too). There is a dose of heavy, sweaty, Disco Funk that runs through all Breakbot’s music, and after hearing some of his mixes, in particular the supremely silky and loved-up ‘Lazy Sunday Selecta’, I figured he must play a pretty mean set as a DJ. My chance to be proved right finally came at an Ed Banger night (the label was celebrating it’s 10th anniversary). First off, something I really like about Breakbot live is that he does a lot of manipulating and mashing up with the samples and beats in the moment, so there’s more of a live element to it than a straightforward DJ set. This might explain why (some say) there were a few lulls in his set, but on the flip side, I think it makes him more interesting to watch as a performer, with his Jesus-at-the-decks look. ‘Baby I’m Yours’, probably his best-known tune and a slice of sunny, feel-good funky disco, was the high watermark of an irresistible wave of euphoria.

Those French Producers are tearing up the scene these days with artists such as Daft Punk and M83, lets discuss Etienne de Crecy, the DJ who’s live performance is truly a spectacle, similar to that of his contemporary, Amon Toben. I’m going to do my best to describe what is the most ridiculous stage set.
Try to picture a rubiks cube where there outline of each square is white, almost creating a frame of light, and then complicate it beyond the stretch of your imagination with de Crecy sitting tight with his decks in the middle one, while this gargantuan structure almost morphs into many different shapes, including being infinitely 3D. The whole audience around me are simply astounded, as though our jaws are on the floor due to fireworks. He powers through songs such as “Welcome”, which is the song that I’m writing about right now. It’s very simple, sampling the alarm that apple use on their clocks. It doesn’t really go anywhere apart from two chords, making this whole thing more of an art exhibition instead. Either way, I’m completely blown away.