The Pop Corporation

The Gossip are coming back, the Strokes and Yeah Yeah Yeahs rubbed shoulders with LCD Soundsystem on the ‘Meet Me In The Bathroom’ documentary, and it’s all well and good and it’s encouraging to see a load of loud, fun music making a comeback. However, we’re much more interested in a revival of skuzzy, super daft, filter heavy French house making a comeback.

Now, there is rumblings – Justice are going to be coming back and that’ll surely reignite an interest in the glorious Ed Banger records discography. Of course, Daft Punk have bowed out, and while Thomas Bangalter has gone classical, wouldn’t it be nice if he got on the phone to Alan Braxe and decided it was time for a new Stardust record, to signal the sound of summer!

Also known as ‘French Touch’, sometimes ‘tekfunk’, but the whole thing injected a playful and gritty fun to the dancefloor, much like Indie Sleaze did with it’s rock crowd. The two, you have to say, are inextricably linked, but one’s definitely got better tunes (and recreational drugs).

While dance music redefines itself with each passing year, it also reinterprets the past and makes old bangers new again. If the industrial strength techno of Berghain gave dance music a sexy, gothic edge, then disco re-edits and new house aimed for elegance and cocaine showers. However, French house managed to incorporate all of the above, and do it often with it’s tongue firmly in it’s own cheek.

Before they donned the robot helmets, Daft Punk were two dorky looking guys who loved the Beach Boys and Mr Oizo burst onto the scene via a yellow puppet called Flat Eric. And between them both, alongside Cassius, Bob Sinclair, Etienne De Crecy, Modjo and more, the French injected a whole lot of down and dirty fun to dancefloors across the planet.

And you know what? Maybe it’s time for is something more bug-eyed, where you know you’ll be wrecking your trainers on a filthy dancefloor, your head absolutely banjaxed by loops and gnarly synths. Dance music, when it works best, allows the drinkers to nestle up with the pill-poppers side-by-side. Big, dirty 4/4s and syrupy basslines, at a slower, groovier pace than the relentlessness of techno.

And French House allows for the escapism of ’80s LA, with satin jackets, shaggy hair, and generally having a noisy good-time. 2024, we could do with some bubblegum to accompany our nights out, in some windowless rooms where the sweat drips off the ceiling, rather than the relentless march toward superclub stylings and huge ticketed events. French House, even though it occasionally took over the whole world (not only via Daft Punk, but let’s not forget that Madonna basically got the French Touch for a couple of great LPs), always felt like a silly night out somewhere cramped and faded-flashy.

There’s a need for an unpretentious good time, reminding us of the great Jacking elements of Chicago house, with head-noddings of hip-house and garish clothes and smoking inside. It’s okay to have a gut from a rich diet in the DJ booth. It’s encouraged to not dress entirely in black and have chief-exec self-made sloganeering from your producers. Dance music is always the best value when it feels like the wheels are falling off. Modern disco has been co-opted (as disco always does) by lifestyle DJs and big-brand bars, making a quick pink-pound while being run by almost wholly heterosexual white men in their late 40s.

At least with French House, it’s abrasive enough to put people off cocktail menus and small plate culture – it’s designed for late nights, sweating, and getting bug-eyed on a weeknight. There’s obviously a place for all forms of dance music and we don’t want any to go away – there’s just one missing ingredient, and it’s French house’s love of ’80s electro, daft samples, elastic basslines and juddering, brain-melting synths.

Any comeback wouldn’t be wholly backward looking – Folamour have been causing chaos with re-edits, remixes and originals and if you see that name on a festival bill, you’re heading straight for it. Larry Houl, Bellair, Martin Alix, DJ Mangabey, Maxye, Le Hutin, Deborah Aime Le Bagarre, LOG, and a number of hip French labels are lighting a fire in the Gallic belly again.

Tout le monde est-il prêt à passer à nouveau un bon moment?