#french electro

First, I gotta start with something which will be a surprise to absolutely no one if you know me at all:

Against All Logic - Cityfade

Track 7 of 2012-2017 (2018), the first studio album from Nicolás Jaar's deep house project "Against All Logic", kicking off the list with a lingually transcendent and always heart-wrenching banger. The track quotes Rainer Maria Rilke's 1907 poem Quai du Rosaire, a reflection on the abandonment of Bruges, Belgium, with Jaar reframing it for a more contemporary audience.

Emboldened by the record's use of outsider-house sampling styles- especially noticeable in Cityfade's main loop, a room reverb-damp piano -there is a sobering realness to the track. In a record full of huge spatially surreal mixes, it is definitely jarring, suddenly you are somewhere identifiable. The track continues to hammer on this loop, slowly layering synth-string chords, arpeggiators, lifting the listener away from the track's initial presentation. We are provided with an overhead point of view; one bleakly confronting the damaged and abandoned- a bird's eye on humanity's carelessness. The driving 2 & 4 snare beat persists throughout the whole track, initially with a sense of emptiness, slowly filled by swells. The vocals build to a nearly theatrical pleading, palpable even beyond language barriers, ending with an uneasy but satisfying release.

Cityfade's jarring production and bittersweet burn never fail to jerk some tears from me, and I'd highly recommend a listen the track in context with the rest of the LP.

Kero Kero Bonito - Well Rested

Another entry into my personal deep house hall-of-fame, Well Rested from the trio's 2021 EP Civilization II following up 2019's Civilization I, destroys me.

A height of KKB's digifusion vernacular, toe-to-toe with tracks like Trampoline from Bonito Generation (2016), Well Rested is a shot trained on the skull of nihilistic thinking, and good lord it connects. "False prophets proclaim that the end is nigh, and that humanity is not worth existence. This is a trap laid to ensnare the living, a lie of the weak-willed, the inhuman." For someone so often preoccupied with the veritable hellscape that is "contemporary geopolitics", Well Rested is an important reminder of hope: change will come, and there are people who care. "Instead, we will be Well Rested", after an octave driven acid melody line over KKB's always delightful J-VGM inspired fusion production, the track opens up for a triumphantly delivered chorus from singer Sarah Midori Perry.

Closing out with a synthesizer runaround from producers Gus Lobban and Jamie Bulled, notably shake-y but determined, we end on a marriage of humanity and nature; one and the same. The distinct "kero-kero" melodic quote from their debut mixtape over a babbling river, Well Rested reminds us that it's okay to be scared, but we can't, and we won't lose sight of the light.

The Field - A Paw In My Face

From Axel Willner's debut LP as The Field From Here We Go Sublime (2007), an essential record in minimal techno, A Paw In My Face with its quaint looping guitar sample reminiscent of a skipping CD is easy to lose yourself in.

Without a doubt pulling from the repetitive yet nuanced stylings of post-minimalist contemporary classical composers like Steve Reich and Philip Glass, the term trance gains a whole new level of meaning on this record, and especially on this track. I encourage anyone interested to set aside some time to give From Here We Go Sublime a front-to-back deep listen and meditation. By even the second track I find myself digging into parts of myself I struggle to reach otherwise. As a both a recording and performing act, The Field is a perfect demonstration of how something seemingly so simple can reach you at your core.

Daft Punk - Revolution 909

Track 3 on their debut LP Homework (1997), Revolution 909 is a distillation of all feelings from your first rave into a 5:26 studio track.

That submersion into another space when entering a venue; freeing yourself and letting go. The side-chain pumping and low-pass sweeps open a window to peer back in on those feelings. Dead simple in its arrangement, but captivating nonetheless, Revolution 909 is liberating in a way not many other songs can claim.

"Lose yourself to dance", so to speak *wink-wink*.

Aphex Twin - Tha