French Disco

[Marcio**]

Cerrone (Cerrone is universal), Martin Circus, Quartz, Kikrokos... The new find is a group called "Universal Energy" and their song "Disco Energy". "Disco Energy" is an instrumental disco song and uses the sinthesizer a lot (remember a little "Lust" by Rinder & Lewis) and you can hate it...or love it .

[Giovanni]

"Disco energy" is a true cult track for the afro-electronic-disco lovers.
Another great french act in the same vein is ARPADYS on Siroco records

[DiscoMan]

"French Disco"?
I didn't know the French were smart enough for DiscO!
Ewwwwwww, did I say that?

[vodkatonique]

Obviously you did & you may as well have shut up :evil:

[PaulC]

...

[DiscoMan]

I said it just to piss you froggies off!
And it worked!!!!!!!!!!
I guess you all have no sense of humor!
Oh, and I'm of French descent - even had relatives get married in Paris!

[BrunoRepublic]

I said it just to piss you froggies off!
And it worked!!!!!!!!!!

I'm not French, but I found that to be seriously Not Cool.

I guess you all have no sense of humor!

No, it just wasn't funny.

Oh, and I'm of French descent - even had relatives get married in Paris!

...and that somehow justifies your comments?

[Marcio**]

French artists did for sure great disco:

1- Jacques Morali (the producer of The Ritchie Family, Village People and others)
2 - Pierre Jaubert (the producer of Chantal Curtis or Michele)
3 - Marc Chantereau (OH GOD, he just played the keyboards on Voyage's "Souvenirs" !!!)
4 - Michael Cratu (he produced the group Enigma, it's not disco of course but it's fascinating)

...

[vodkatonique]

Notwithstanding the abovementioned dumb remark :roll: , I DO admit that French disco is often pretty worthless, except maybe some Patrick Juvet & Martin Circus productions and the very obscure Les Garçons project. There's a comp that's just been released in France called, aptly, French Disco, that, given the track listing, you should avoid like the plague. :cry: Bands like Ottawan or artists like Dalida were much more pop-flavoured that bona fide disco. For the record, one half of Daft Punk, who also operates under the name Le Knight Club for even more syncopated cut-up disko productions (I think it's De Homem-Christo) is the son of Ottawan's producer, which explains their disco obsession.

[DiscoMan]

Let's not take ourselves too seriously!
In any case, like I've admitted in the past I know positively nothing about European Disco. I have been a Francoise Hardy fan for many, many years.

[BrunoRepublic]

How can you have a thread about French disco and not mention Costandinos or Cerrone? :)

[DiscoMan]

Costandinos of "Love and Kisses"?
If so; wasn't "Love and Kisses" formed in London in '77?
and didn't they break up a few years later?
Whatever became of Costandinos?

[BrunoRepublic]

Costandinos of "Love and Kisses"?

There is only one Costandinos...

If so; wasn't "Love and Kisses" formed in London in '77?

No, they only recorded in London. Alec, along with most of the other performers, were French. I assume that London was chosen because Trident Studios was there. Trident was (and still is) one of the top studios in Europe.

and didn't they break up a few years later?

Well, "Love and Kisses" wasn't really a group. It was just another name they used to market Costandinos' music (like Sumeria, Sphinx, etc.).

Whatever became of Costandinos?

From what I've read, he's alive and well and living in Paris.

[JussiK]

Zut alors, Vodkatonique, sober up to the impressive disco heritage of your own country :-) ! After all, France is where dance culture as we now know it originated from, not the USA or England. From 1974 onwards, interesting product was continuosly realesed in france there that did not always travel as well as it should have. There are countless 7-inch wonders gathering dust in vinyl store basements, afro-style boogie inspired by the groundbreaking "Soul Makossa" and all sorts of Brazilan flavours. And your normal disco records of course! MBT Soul, African Magic Combo, Paradise Birds, all the one-or-two hit wonders from the Malligator, Carrere and Ibach labels. Producers such as Jean-Luc Drion had pop success all over the continent too, often with Dutch/Belgian/French co-productions like Chocolat's. The Cerrone records are once again out as re-issues and used by comtemporary djs in house sets. It's true that many more popular French disco acts were very mor pop sounding, but that does not make say Dalida any less fabulous, nor "Copacabana (At The Copa)" by Line Renaud any less brilliantly campy fun. And so on!!

[Com King]

Hello everybody.

It has been a little while I haven't been on this forum and it's a pleasant surprise to see such a subject :) (thank you marcio).

First vodkatonique, I have to disagree with you on certain points : There are some great instrumentations in Patrick Juvet stuff (Lady night, mainly), dalida stuff (Gigi in Paradisco), and of course Claude François, that nobody mentionned. Those tracks can sound "kitsch", but they are still great disco for me.

Of cousre not as great as Cerrone and Costandinos. I'm one of the biggest fan of Cerrone and Costandinos. They did songs that are simply wonderful to listen and wonderful to dance, and like Jussik said, they are still an inspiration for tons of producers today.

Finally, even if we can't consider what he did as "French disco", François kervorkian is a kid from Rodez, Aveyron.


My top 3 french acts :

1- Love and Kisses - How much I love you
2- Cerrone - Supernature
3- Voyage - Souvenirs

[vodkatonique]

For obvious reasons, I always thought Costandinos was Greek :oops:
On the topic of European disco, I've just dowloaded three Icelandic disco tracks that are really great ! :o My keyboard cannot manage the Icelandic alphabet, but the artists (or band)'s name approaches something like Bu Og Eg, with the best track being called "Dans, Dans, Dans". :)

[Marcio**]

For obvious reasons, I always thought Costandinos was Greek

Alec R. Costandinos was born in Egypt but his education was French. His complete name is a mystery to me but I already saw as Alec Romeo Constandinos.

[QUINNY]

I hate to be a bore but may I mention the truly fabulous..........
MSO - Columbia which I believe is French (but doesn't sound it, so I could be way off beam), but as no info is available anywhere, je ne sais pas. My copy is on Mainstreet and was pressed in France.

[DiscoMan]

Costandinos' "real" name is a very ethnic Armenian name.
I'll check it out and post it.
Regards to all, especially my French cousins :D

Here it is (or the best I have as there is some inconsistency
in descriptions of his background): Alexandre Kouyoumdjiam

[martinus]

French artists did for sure great disco:

1- Jacques Morali (the producer of The Ritchie Family, Village People and others)
2 - Pierre Jaubert (the producer of Chantal Curtis or Michele)
3 - Marc Chantereau (OH GOD, he just played the keyboards on Voyage's "Souvenirs" !!!)
4 - Michael Cratu (he produced the group Enigma, it's not disco of course but it's fascinating)


Michael Cretu is from Munich: Before Enigma he produced Moti Special ("Cold Days Hot Nights"), Hubert K. ("Limousine"), and his wife Sandra ("Maria Magdalena", "In The Heat Of The Night").

[Marcio**]

Michael Cretu is from Munich: Before Enigma he produced Moti Special ("Cold Days Hot Nights"), Hubert K. ("Limousine"), and his wife Sandra ("Maria Magdalena", "In The Heat Of The Night").

Really? Another mystery is Don Ray. I heard he is from German too. Another French disco group is The Gibson Brothers.

...

[NickNack]

Here's a bio on Michael Cretu. Says he was born in Bucharest.

http://www.michaelcretu.com/biography.php

[Boodikka]

Don Ray's real name is Raymond Donnez.

It's just a wild guess, but I'd say he's French.

[Giovanni]

Don Ray's real name is Raymond Donnez

RAYmond DONnez infact. French!!!

[peppertree5706]

Franz Joli-Come to Me. Was she from Montreal or was she from France?