At last, something to rave about
France's contribution to the world of popular music was once a subject of derision in the English-speaking world. But the balance of power has shifted dramatically during the past decade, particularly when it comes to electronic music.
One of the best known tracks of New York dance rock act LCD Soundsystem (aka James Murphy), whose recently released Sound of Silver has been widely hailed as the album of the year, is Daft Punk Is Playing at My House, a nod to the influence of the French band.
Other French acts such as Air, Laurent Garnier and Dimitri from Paris have long been international stars. Madonna turned to Paris-based producer Mirwais to save her career with chunky French beats several albums ago, and the use of the repopularised vocoder made Cher a sexagenarian chart-topper.
That's nothing compared with the current French dance scene, which is thriving as much, if not more, abroad than at home. The brand of noise emanating from France has reshaped the sound of British and Iberian clubland during the past year, and leading lights such as Justice have been sought after for remixing by acts as diverse as Fatboy Slim, Mystery Jets and Britney Spears.
The success of these acts is something Pierre Hurel plans to celebrate with France Touches Hong Kong, an all-night dance party next week that will fuse the best in French music and fashion. The event, part of Le French May, will be held at Lan Kwai Fong hotspot Volar. Hurel's company, Py-R2, is bringing out big names such as Busy P, considered by some as the founding father of the French electronic scene, and one of Busy P's recent proteges, Justice, from his maverick electro label Ed Banger Records.
Hurel admits that the early influences on the French scene were outsiders: the likes of German electronica pioneers Kraftwerk, British bleepmeister Aphex Twin and various US techno DJs he began listening to in 1993.
'At that time in France big legal raves as we know today would be cancelled for no reason,' he says. 'I thought maybe it was worth listening to, so at night I hid under my blanket playing a radio show at low volume so my mum wouldn't hear. That's how I got into electronic music, listening to Laurent Garnier, Jeff Mills and Derrick May, to name but a few.'