Cassius: 1999

Since the words "French" and "funky" rarely appear in the same sentence, it has come as something of a shock to find French artists emerging at the forefront of the house-music revival. It may in fact have been Europe's inherent unfunkiness that led to the rapid proliferation of house's colder cousin, techno, throughout the old country in the first place. House music is firmly rooted in American funk; its rise through the underground clubs of the Midwest was in many ways a last ditch effort to cling onto disco that instead gave birth to a new musical form. Techno, on the other hand, has always been more clinical, and thus prone to the kind of soulless mass-production at which European dance hacks excel. In recent years, however, clubgoers around the world have been shunning techno in favor of the warmer, more retro flavors of house, and France, of all places, has led the way. In many respects, Cassius predates the current house resurgence, which is best exemplified by such breakout groups as Daft Punk. Boombass (ne Hubert Blanc-Francard) and Philippe Zoar, the duo behind Cassius, have been kicking around a bit with MoWax's La Funk Mob and France's MC Solaar, but 1999 is their full-fledged debut. Judging from the eclectic sound of things, Boombass and Zoar have managed to integrate just about every one of their (always beat-based) interests, from hip hop to disco and beyond, into this record. The results are sometimes more fun than funky, but "Feeling For U" and "Foxxy" give off energy like a supernova. Even so, Respect Is Burning, Volume 2, the second collection of house tracks and remixes drawn from Paris' famed Respect club, is more effortlessly explosive. Zoar shows up again as Motorbass, toying with Norma Jean Bell's "I'm The Baddest Bitch," and "Music Sounds Better With You" by Stardust (Thomas Bangalter from the ever-mysterious Daft Punk) gets the remix treatment from fellow Frenchie Dimitri From Paris. The slapped-bass samples and ultra-low-end beat are irresistibly propulsive, and it's safe to assume that when put into practice in, say, a club like Respect, any of these tracks would immediately light a fire under the feet of even the most wooden and wallflower of dancers.