We're in Chez Emile store in Lyon which
is like my favourite record store in
Lyon. I've been working with them for a
long time for my labels as they've been
distributing our records.
So, we had like a close
relationship for a long time.
They are, like, really nice people, really
dedicated to sharing great music, s
preading the word, and have always being
really supportive of the local scene
and of me especially.
I can say they've always been really
supportive of me and my work.
So it's a great place.
It's a nice place to share
a moment and dig records together.
So I'm really happy to have you here.
I haven't been here for
quite a long time, though.
So I think I'm going to find a lot
of stuff that I've never heard, which is,
like, quite exciting, actually.
I'm always between a lot of
stuff that really attracts me.
It can be, like, I must say, I'm
always attracted to beautiful covers, which is
kind of something you should not say
when you're, like, a vinyl digger.
I also like when record stores are taking
some time to write some ideas about
the record. Like, for instance, we
can see, electronic, neoclassical, ambient
stuff, which sounds good.
So, it depends.
I think I'm going to go to ambient.
I've always loved ambient because I've always
loved, like, folk music, and I
think it's really related to how ambient, has
an effect on you when you listen
to it. That kind of,
like, really peaceful energy.
One day I was in an airport, like, 10
times in 10 days, or something, and I was
really feeling tired and feeling, like,
touched by everything happening, like
not in a really good mood.
And one of my friends said, you should
really go back to listening to ambient,
it we really make everything easier for you
to, like, kind of being able to step
back from everything that happens.
And, so I did, and actually it was maybe
the best move I did in the last few
months. It really, really helped.
My first move is always to find the
record that I want to listen at home
because I never know if
I'm going to play it.
So, because I don't know if I'm going to
play it, actually, I prefer to buy a
record that I know I'm going to
love playing it at home a lot.
Nowadays, I'm not using anymore samples.
I'm way more into, like, recording in
studio with live instruments and stuff
like that. With vocalists, and
writing lyrics and writing melodies.
But before I was sampling a lot, and so
I was spending a long time to find like
the perfect sample of a record that
most people didn't know or that nobody
knew. It's more like for pure
listening, for my pure amusement.
Brian Eno, for instance, has been like
always like a huge, huge influence.
And it's (laughs).
And it's called 'Music for
Airports', which is absolutely crazy.
And I love this record, actually.
It's, like, absolutely amazing.
This is like this kind of stuff that
I'm really happy to find in this
situation. Yeah, this is
a crazy good record.
It's a classic, of course,
but it's been really important.
It's Yussef Kamaal 'Black Focus'.
And, yeah, I've always been in love
with jazz, and I've always regretted that
it was so far from the youth.
I think, since like 40 years, it's
been, like, really disconnected from the
young people. And I'm really happy to see
someone, like a band, being able to
bring that back, and to bring youth,
like, young people back to jazz music,
which is, like, such a freedom music, such
an important music, and such a route
for a lot of different stuff.
Let's say I like
Manu Dibango for instance.
They ranked it in the jazz section.
It's, like, exactly the kind of
jazz I'm listening to now.
More like African jazz, funk music.
I'm really into that right now.
There is a lot of
good stuff, actually, here.
Last time I came they didn't have,
like, a big, big Jazz section.
But now they really developed it.
A lot of good stuff. Yeah, Chet Baker.
Miles Davis 'Rubber Band'.
It's a classic, John Coltrane.
There is a lot of good stuff here.
Actually, I kind of discovered jazz music,
soul music and funk music through
hip hop. Because when I was a teenager,
I was really into french hip hop from
the 90s. This is perfect to have them
next to him because I think they are
really close in a lot of
minds like mine, for instance.
When I started, I was sending all my
music to a lot of different labels.
Like, not a lot, but the
record labels I really loved.
I was sending them my demos
and no one was answering, actually.
And after a few months of being really
proud of what I produced and sending it
to people that were not listening to it, I
was with some friends and I said to
them, like, fuck it,
let's do it ourselves.
And my first actual EP was on
the label and it came like crazy.
It was my first record kind of
breaking through to a wider audience.
This is really good. This is a an
artist from Lyon who's called LB aka Labat.
He's a good friend of mine.
And actually he released a
track on my label.
And he's really talented.
He's doing a lot of lives and a
lot of hip hop really, really good artist.
I never heard about that record, so
I'm really excited to listen to it,
actually. This is exactly the kind of stuff
that I love to pick when I'm a
record digging like some old-School African stuff
that I have no idea about.
And like, for instance, this is a
record that is called basically like
'singings and music from Kurdistan'.
And I have no idea what's on it,
but it's always really exciting because you can
find something absolutely crazy on it.
I already "digged" some like old-School Indian
stuff or even like Library music
about, like, I don't know, sounds from
the street in Cairo or something like
that. And you never know, sometimes the
full record is uninteresting to you,
but sometimes you can find like one
song that's gonna stick to you forever.
And that's going to be really important to
you because you know that it's on
the record that no one
wants to listen to, actually.
In a lot of the records I have, I'm
not crazy about all the tracks, but if
there is like one or two tracks that I
really like, it's way enough for me to
be able to buy it because I know it's
going to be worth it to just listen to
that one song. Okay.
I'm in the Afro/Disco/Funk section.
So this is kind of like
my section, I would say.
This is the section where I could bring
any record, I could pick any records.
And actually I almost did.
So this is really perfect.
Oh, OK. So this is
my second album, actually.
Same. It was not set-up.
But I was really happy
actually they distributed it.
So I think it's pretty fair
that they still have one.
And I think it's maybe the last copy in
the world to buy because it's been sold
out for so long now. And this
is a record from my label.
This is exactly what I want
to do on my label.
This is a record that
I'm extremely proud of.
It's from an artist called Tochigi Canopy he
has been like a friend of mine for
ten years or something.
And when he sent me, he sent me
these tracks, he's some guy that's always
working countless hours on every song.
He takes so much time to just find
this synth sound or something like that.
And we made it a beautiful
cover that is, like, properly.
He took the pictures.
It's amazing.
This is a really good record.
You know, there is a lot
of really good French artists here.
Lot of good artists from France.
The scene in France
is really interesting, actually.
Right now, there is so
many artists in every city.
It's really beautiful to see.
And I hope they're going to
have the recognition they deserve.
When I discovered house music, I instantly
fell in love with Theo Parrish, who
sticked to me, and is still like, 10
years later, he's still my favorite DJ in
the world. This is a record label I
really loved when I discovered house music,
Mr. Saturday Night.
There was a lot of really, really
interesting records from a lot of artists.
When I dig, I like to keep open
minded and to just listen to everything.
I can feel I'm going to like or I
can feel something is interesting in it, even
though it's not what I'm
listening exactly at that moment.
It's not that important. If I'm properly honest,
the feeling I have when I dig
records is a great, great feeling
of like joy and excitement.
But I truly have exactly that same
feeling when I'm digging records online.
You know, when I'm listening to like a
thousand videos on YouTube or when I'm
digging through Discogs and when I'm even
on Spotify just scrolling and putting
on random and just trying
to find new stuff.
What I like in records is obviously the
fact that I don't decide what's going
on. kind of. I'm kind of like driven
by someone else's mind and I'm just going
through what he picked, and it
brings something new to me.
So sometimes I think when I'm
digging actual records, I'm always discovering
some stuff that I would have
never had in another way.
Leo is running the record store, gave
me some stuff, some really excited to
listen to that. This is something that
makes it really important to have record
stores, for me.
It's that social aspect and that exchange
aspect about like having someone else
that can know your taste and you can give
him a few references and he's able to
know from all these records, like, "This
stuff you're going to really like",
which is a great thing. And I've always
enjoyed that: Going to a record store
and just being like, "What do you think?
Do you have some records that
I'm going to go crazy about?"
That's one of my favourite records.
Simon - I don't know how you
say that actually in English, but that's
absolutely crazy. I didn't know it's
been reissued, but it's really good.
In my first first first records, a
bought, like, Al Hudson 'Happy Feet'.
It's like classic record.
I think we are like maybe 10,000 or
20,000 in the world to have that record.
It's like a big, big
record, but it's a classic.
And there is so many great songs.
And I think like Al Hudson and,
like, there is also Cameo here.
And Ashford and Simpson, they are kind of
like the first records you find out
when you start digging through soul and
disco music because there were like big
hits. And in Europe you can find
them in a lot of different places.
Like, Al Hudson's album
and stuff like that.
This is a record, I picked that I
was talking about like a like 'Singings and
Music from Kurdistan'.
This is exactly the kind of record that
I love digging in record labels because
there is like millions of these
like library, traditional music records, and
you never know, like, it's really...
It can be absolutely trash and
it can be pure treasure.
And sometimes you can find something that
is really it's great for sampling or
it's great for inspiration because it's
usually really soft in terms of
instrumentals like it's only
a few instruments usually.
Sometimes it's only parts.
I have like maybe 20 records, where
it's, only parts of different like
countries and traditions.
And it's really, really good.
I love doing that. It's really great.
Yeah, yeah, I love that kind of stuff.
And it's so it's so nice to listen
to these records because it's really hard to
remember them really well
because it's so deconstructed.
And it sounds like a jam, you
know, in a lot of ways.
And sometimes it's like 30 minutes
of like different instruments doing solos.
So it's like always when you listen
to each, you always, like, find something
new, you always discover a new moment
that you missed or it's like really
interesting. I love doing that.
And this is what I like about having
a record store where you feel comfortable,
you know, you can take your time.
As we said before, you can ask.
You can ask stuff because you feel
comfortable about asking to people working
here about what you want, what you're
looking for, their opinion about stuff,
too, because this is a thing, I
think in a lot of record stores.
You don't have like a proper
confidant to listen to records.
There is like sometimes there is like one
turntable and like 20 people in the
store and everyone is lining up like
queuing to wait to do it.
And you don't feel good.
You know, you know, you're...
Like sometimes as there is even rules
like take only three records and stuff,
which doesn't make
it really spontaneous.
And really, it doesn't push
you to discover new things.
You go directly to something, like...
I can feel that's going to be
okay so I'm going for that.
Which for instance, today I
tried to not do that.
I tried to pick a lot of stuff that
I have no idea what I'm going to find.
And it's a great feeling.
But I can do it because there is good
conditions to do it, which is not always
the case, I must say. Yeah.
So this is an artist I
really like called Charly Kingson.
It's really good. It's like old
school, African disco, funk music.
Seems like this is kind of
a safe pick for me.
I know I'm going to like it, you know?
Oh, that's really good.
I like that. That's nice.
Let's listen to the other side.
Yeah, I know this one.
I'm playing it actually a lot.
'Nimele Bolo', yeah.
This is exactly the kind of stuff I'm
playing these days, so that's really good.
Yeah, I like that. It's really good.
I think like on the first ten seconds
know if I'm going to pick it.
If I'm going to find
something that I like.
But like right now I'm going through a
bit quick because I already know the
records or for instance,
there is so much that I want to
listen to, but usually I'm taking more time.
First, I'm listening to every track like
pretty quickly in like 30 seconds.
And after that I go back to the thing
I loved and I'm making sure that I
really, really like it.
This is something I really like.
It's like a really good label of
re-issuing, like kind of like synthy, like
synthy funk from Africa.
And it's really good.
And I never know what to expect
because the records are usually really, really
unknown before being reissued.
Yeah, it's good. OK.
The guy is just he's just coming back man
he just wants to be on the video.
That's all.
No. That's nice. A bit bubble gum.
That kind of stuff. I like that.
I like that...
Kind of avant-garde, I would say.
Because I think the first record, oh,
no, it was not, that old.
It was '93.
So that's OK for that kind of
sound, but it was really nice.
So this is like this is the artist I
was talking about from Lyon, LB aka Labat.
Yeah I've released something by him on
my label and he's like really, really
good. I think he's one
of the next big...
Next big thing from the French scene.
He's absolutely amazing.
I'm going to play this.
Actually, this is a featuring between him
and an artist from Lyon called
Patchworks, which is amazing and he's kind of
like one of the legends from the
city. He's been here forever.
And he has another
project called Voilaaa.
And I've been closing my set a lot
with 'Spies Are Watching Me', which is like
a beautiful track from his album.
It's kind of like a cover of
the track from Police'Every Breath You Take'.
It's another version of it,
but he changes the lyrics.
He re-recorded every instrument.
So it makes it completely different
and he's a great, great artist.
This is really good. This is another
French artist that I really respect.
He's called Onra he's an old school beat
maker, I would say, in the first place
. But he= is more
than just making beats.
He has that like G-funk sound
from from early 90s.
Kind of. And it's really, really good.
And it always sounds so particular.
His sound is always
really messy but beautiful.
Yeah. I love that kind of stuff.
This is love music.
I love that. So this is the kind of
stuff that I usually look for when I'm
digging records for music that
I'm going to play.
I go more in to like
Balearic, Italo disco and funk/soul.
But when I go to a record store, I
like to check like the edits label because
you never know what
you're going to find.
You never know. So.
Let's try the second track.
That's actually really nice
Ok. Ok.
I don't quite understand
what this record is.
It's too much for me. I started actually
playing drums when I was like eight or
something and I did that for years and
now, like, I forgot about that memory
and a few months ago I was talking with
a friend and we talked about that and I
was like, "That's true! I
was really doing that.
That was crazy". And so that was my
first my very first thing, too, to vinyl.
So it was a big record
that was sold like crazy.
You know, David Bowie stuff.
And and just trying to follow the
rhythm, trying to reproduce the drums, breaks
and stuff like that. It really
helped when I was younger.
I stopped doing it when I started learning
bass and guitar, and I was more
involved in having like bands and
doing covers and stuff like that.
But when I was alone, like really young,
it was a really great way to to
actually learn.
Exactly the stuff I love finding
Woah.
I loved that.
I love that kind of stuff like this reminds
me of like Archie Bell & The Drells
and stuff like that, like really slow soul
music where like the vocals is like
hitting you inside at some point.
I really, really like that.
This is the kind of music I
listen to, like every time, every day.
So this is a band
I was talking about, Cotonete.
The Parisian band that I really like.
And this is a song
that is absolutely beautiful.
It's called 'Layla' and it's golden.
It's so nice.
I love that song. It's so beautiful.
And it's their first record!
It's always really surprising.
Their first album. It's always surprising when
you listen to the first album of
a project and it's already so mature, you
know, and this is a really mature
project. You can feel like all the musicians have
gone a long way to be able to
write that record. I
really, really like it.
So, yeah, I picked this record too, which
is like, You can see right from the
cover that it's library music.
That's like library music is music that was
made and that is still made, but
it's pretty rare now, it's like
music made for background music.
It can be like documentary's back or it
can be like even elevator music, in a
way. Library music can be a lot, and
back then, it was made by amazing
songwriters.
Properly talented composers.
For sampling it's really nice. And you
can hear like even for yourself, it's
like the most simple stuff.
Usually it's like only one instrument.
Like, it's perfect. And actually, I have
a Dexter Wansel library music record
where it's only him playing
piano on the two sides.
Different kind of pianos like synth
and Moog and stuff like that.
And I have this record, which
is like my most expensive record.
It'd been given to me by a friend in the
US after a gig as a gift, and it was
beautiful. And I still listen to it a
lot and it's just like one instrument,
which I love, when the simplicity
of it makes it beautiful.
Oh, there is Gigi Masin.
So, I can't really read because it's
written in Japanese, but there is written
Gigi Masin and Gigi Masin is like
one of the very, very best contemporary
pianists that's open enough to play in our
scene and to do stuff our scene.
That's a great that's
a really good pick.
Wow that's good.
I love that.
That sounds like library music in there.
I love that. So this is a perfect example
of why it's great to have like that
social aspect in going record digging.
You can't have that on Discogs.
You know, you just have to have people
and develop a relationship and know each
other and being able to, like, trust
them in what they advise you.
Because this is really good.
One of the best records we
listened to today for sure.
I'm just going to check the other side.
Yeah, I love that. That's perfect.
It was a great, great record, too,
and that listening session for sure.
You catch me here at Melting Point,
which was actually my first record shop
where I've been record shopping
back in the days.
Every Wednesday, when the new records came,
there was always the superstar DJs
coming in at lunchtime and when they
had their records, then people like me
were allowed to look into it.
Down under the normal things
you find interesting stuff.
Crazy. Dubplates have a
very special, special smell.
It's actually quite sexy.
Just forget about yourself and spend
hours in a record shop.
