CD FORMAT

Parisian Martin Solveig shows us how to effortlessly bridge the gap between electronic music, rock and R & B and why the British perception of French music is just plain wrong! Perhaps it’s our well-documented mutual antipathy, or maybe it’s our well-documented ignorance, but Britain’s perception of French music is plain wrong. On the surface, it is indeed the land that listens to Europap and still loves to jive badly to La Bamba – is France the only country on the planet where the jive has never gone out of fashion? – but scratch beneath the surface and you’ll find a wealth of talent gasping for air. It has a long and noble tradition of fine singers, musicians and producers, from yé yé to Guy Cuevas, from Jacques Dutronc to the Saintly Serge Gainsbourg and Jean-Claude Vannier; from Ze Records to Africanism… and from Cerrone to, yes, Martin Solveig. Martin Solveig is a seasoned artist even though he is still considered very young, in his late 20’s when other people his age are partying till they drop, Martin is travelling the world and working till he drops. He really does have a ridiculously relentless schedule. Already awarded the reputation of being the hardest working DJ around, and admits to having to settle for around 5 hours sleep a night, bless him! This sleep deprivation does nothing to curb his attitude, full of life, very polite and extremely keen, he knows he is living the dream. Although more famous in France than he is in the UK, “I was on the train just an hour ago and a couple of people came up to me for Autographs” he acknowledges, his fame is spreading due to his charts successes and his constant personal appearances around venues in the UK. Why is this DJ and producer particularly interesting? Well he is known as the bridge between rock music, funk and house, his music contains all the best elements of traditional genres to make a contemporary electronic cocktail that appeals to the masses. He admits that France’s pop music is heavily R & B and Hip Hop based. His music directly reflects this. A great example is ‘Rocking Music’, with its echoes of Prince and Michael Jackson. It was an instant anthem wherever it was played and transferred from underground floors to Radio 1 play lists with consummate ease. “I never thought it would be that big,” reflects Martin. The follow-up, I’m A Good Man, voiced by legendary growler Lee Fields (who incidentally would easily win a James Brown look and sound a like competition) was another example of a super innovative track with an infectious blend of genres. One of Martin’s best recognised and most rewarding achievements to date was to work with the world renowned Salif Keita. The 57-year-old Malian albino was performing decades before Martin Solveig was born, but when Keita’s label approached him about a potential remix, the timing was apposite. Solveig had been working on an afrobeat track and was looking for a vocal to complement it. The Salif Keita song was ‘Madan’ and Solveig’s remix was one of those rarities among DJs, a tune that crossed over genres and found itself in a wide range of DJ boxes from Tony Humphries and David Morales to Gilles Peterson and a whole swathe of Balearic jocks in the UK. It has since been licensed to an incredible 150 compilations. “I didn’t meet Salif to begin with,” explains Solveig. “But the remix went down very well, especially in France where it got into the top 20”. With his new compilation on Defected released on the 11th September, Martin has been given creative license to put together a personal selection of current and classic tracks which displays what you would expect to hear if you were going to see this artist live. “Both CD’s are not all house music. The main CD is nearly 100% upfront music but it still includes some old school stuff, and let’s say that it is a good introduction to my kind of electronic music not a general view on house music. Since I started working I have created music that is on the edge of house and funk. And so that is my speciality and it is also why I sometimes don’t think I am not a typical house artist”. Through the likes of Martin Solveig and his contemporaries such as Bob Sinclar and Dimitri from Paris, hopefully the nation’s general perception of French music will change to become respected as music with integrity from a noble tradition of French artists.