MIX: The French Connection

Brand new mix from GK taking a dive into all things Daft Punk

The French maestros may not seem the most obvious choice for a Funkdub selection, but when the split up was announced a few months ago it really felt like the end of an era. Back in the early basement years their early material was always playing in our houses, and on the dancefloor. This session takes a rifle through the whole discography, it’s over 90 minutes long, and in the original rough drafts ran to three or four hours with all the big hits; in the end GK concentrated on some of the pure electronica, french touch and robo-disco business.

The mix features tracks from all of the studio albums, including “Daft Club” and the “Tron Legacy” soundtrack, with somewhat of an emphasis on the 1st album, and a couple of specially made re-edits. The session also takes in Daft Punk remixes, as well as some of the producers who remixed them; Soulwax, Erol Alkan and Digitalism. French contemporaries like the sadly departed DJ Mehdi and Cassius as well as Alex Gopher and Etienne De Crecy feature alongside various tracks from artists that bear the android imprint; Kavinsky, Midnight Juggernauts , Levantine and Kraak & Smaak.

The title French Connection really refers to the two scenes where Daft Punk played a pivotal role – French Touch in the 1990s and “bloghouse” that emerged a decade later (championed by labels like Ed Banger and Kitsune) – both of those scenes still have their fingerprints all over contemporary music. Incidentally, if you’ve not seen it already, Eden is one of the finest films about dance music and DJ culture, it has real soul and an incredible soundtrack. Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter are peripheral characters and are always floating in around and above the action – they cast an elusive shadow over the film, much like they do over all of dance music – this clip is particularly golden. Finally a mix saluting the french robots wouldn’t be complete without some LCD Soundsystem and Giorgio Moroder. Selected and mixed by GK, artwork by 3DJ – hope you enjoy it, if you do, tell your friends!

Tracklist

1. Intro
2. Ouverture – Daft Punk
3. Motherboard (GK Veridis Edit) – Daft Punk
4. Veridis Quo – Daft Punk
5. Odd Look (Midnight Juggernauts remix) – Kavinsky
6. The Son of Flynn (GK Da Funk Edit) – Daft Punk
7. Da Funk – Daft Punk
8. Brainwasher (Erol Alkan Horrorhouse Dub) – Daft Punk
9. Robot Rock (Soulwax Remix) – Daft Punk
10. Forever Leather – Levantine
11. Around The World – Daft Punk
12. Aurora – Alex Gopher
13. Technologic (Digitalism Remix) – Daft Punk
14. Giorgio By Moroder – Daft Punk
15. Voyager – Daft Punk
16. Runnin’ – Kraak & Smaak
17. Signatune (Thomas Bangalter Edit) – DJ Mehdi
18. Revolution 909 (HBR Da French Touch Alternative Mix) – Daft Punk
19. Am I Wrong – Etienne De Crecy
20. Shadows – Midnight Juggernauts
21. Mothership (Daft Punk Remix) – Scott Grooves & Parliament
22. Burnin – Daft Punk
23. Feeling For You – Cassius
24. Daft Punk Is Playing At My House (Soulwax Shibuya Mix) – LCD Soundsystem
25. Alive – Daft Punk
26. Tony’s Theme – Giorgio Moroder