Alan Braxe has been a longtime key figure of the French house scene ever since his debut single, "Vertigo," was released by Roulé in 1997. While his music is certainly filled with disco basslines and filtered effects, much of his work seems far more aesthetically inspired by '70s rock and '80s synth pop than underground house music, even if it's clearly produced with clubs in mind. How many other modern-day dance producers earnestly use woodblocks and cowbells the way he does? Originally released in 2005, The Upper Cuts ...
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Alan Braxe has been a longtime key figure of the French house scene ever since his debut single, "Vertigo," was released by Roulé in 1997. While his music is certainly filled with disco basslines and filtered effects, much of his work seems far more aesthetically inspired by '70s rock and '80s synth pop than underground house music, even if it's clearly produced with clubs in mind. How many other modern-day dance producers earnestly use woodblocks and cowbells the way he does? Originally released in 2005, The Upper Cuts gathered some of his most beloved productions to that point, and became a major indie dance hit in its own right. The big crossover smash, of course, is "Music Sounds Better with You," the inescapable 1998 blockbuster recorded with Daft Punk's Thomas Bangalter and vocalist Benjamin Diamond under the name Stardust. Even though Virgin reportedly offered the trio three million dollars to record a full Stardust album, they decided to preserve their perfect moment and move on to other projects. As such, nothing else on The Upper Cuts approaches the same type of ecstatic feeling as the Stardust hit, but the other highlights are triumphant in their own ways. "In Love with You," produced with Romuald Lauverjon under another one-off alias, the Paradise, is an opening-credits roller that feels like basking in a blissful sunrise. Many of the tracks were co-produced by Fred Falke, a successful partnership that only lasted for a few more years after The Upper Cuts was released. "Intro" is as classic as French house gets, looping cheers and sighing vocals along with a nimble disco bassline and thumping beats. "Palladium" modernizes Cerrone-style synth-disco, and "Arena" cheekily pays homage to stadium rock, craftily looping rapturous applause and rhythmic clapping along with very '70s-sounding synth melodies. "Rubicon" comes across like an underground disco DJ's edit of music from an aerobics video, with perky synths and a racing, upbeat rhythm owing more to, say, Olivia Newton-John than house music. Guitar comes in later, but it ends up being looped and chopped-up rather than playing a full solo all the way through. The Upper Cuts remains a seminal document of the era when underground dance music began embracing pop and disco influences, which had largely been thought of as unhip for two decades, and indie/alternative crowds became more open-minded towards dance music and club culture, leading into the blog-house era. ~ Paul Simpson, Rovi
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