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David Guetta - the pioneer of French house with Up
& Way, a garage-style track with vocals by Robert Owens
released in 1992 - really made a name for himself in
the mid-90s as one of the key catalysts of Parisian
nightlife by promoting evenings at such renowned Paris
hot spots as Folies Pigalle, Queen, Bataclan, Palace
and Les Bains, where he invited DJ legends like Little
Louie Vega, David Morales, DJ Pierre and Roger Sanchez
to join him on the turntables. In 2001, however, he
went back to his first love: making music.
Launched by the single Just A Little More Love, an
electro-funk-house cocktail featuring Chris Willis of
the band Nashville on vocals, David Guetta's first album
was released by Virgin in June 2002 and went on to sell
250,000 copies. This resounding success carried through
in the album's second, even more devastating single,
Love Don't Let Me Go, a track reminiscent of Moroder's
techno-disco style crossed with Depeche Mode's new-wave
sound.
Like fellow Frenchman Laurent Garnier, David started
off his career in the gay clubs around Paris' Les Halles
district in the mid-80s, going on to make a name for
himself in acid-house and hip-hop. His first album heralded
the beginning of a new DJ career - this time on a global
level. Named after the parties he hosts on Ibiza, the
fabled isle of techno, David's F*** ME I'M FAMOUS: IBIZA
DJ MIX, which featured his remix of David Bowie's Heroes,
went gold: no small feat for a compilation CD. For the
last three years, David has been invited to mix throughout
Europe on a regular basis and, more and more often,
in the United States, Australia, Japan, Singapore and
Israel as well. He is also resident DJ at The Cross
in London, Barcelona's Discoteca and the Lausanne club
Mad.
Propelled by the rock guitars of the single Money,
David's second album, GUETTA BLASTER, is even gutsier.
David and Joachim Garraud (the first album's co-composer
and co-producer) applied themselves to creating real
songs modeled on electro-pop classics of the 80s by
such masters as Depeche Mode, Yazoo, Dead Or Alive and
New Order, to name the most prominent influences. All
the tracks on this second album are original compositions.
The gospel sounds of Chris Willis and the stylings
of guest vocalists JD Davis (lead singer of Sinema),
James Perry (alias Jimmy Polo, renowned singer/producer
on the Chicago scene) and Britain's Stereo MCs give
the tracks a unique luster, while the production skills
of Guetta and Garraud lift the album to new - and always
spectacular - heights.
From GUETTA BLASTER's opening salvos, Money and Stay,
we get beats that are cranked up a notch beyond the
hard-dance formula of Just A Little More Love. Without
an ounce of hesitation, the album launches itself at
the experimental roots of house music and cold-wave,
displaying an unexpected stylistic versatility, then
oscillates between powerful mixtures of hot & cold and
black & white. The result is 100% addictive.
Used To Be The One, with vocals by Willis, owes a debt
to both Yazoo's Don't Go and garage music. Similarly,
the counterpoint of Time evokes Eurythmics' Sweet Dreams,
blending the best of English pop and dance culture -
something David has mastered like no one else. Open
Your Eyes, a track tailor-made for the Stereo MCs, is
built on a rubbery break beat and an acid sequence,
with a rap that brings their classic Connected to mind.
The abrasive AC/DC, clearly a future hit on the underground/rave
circuit, is like the missing link between Jeff Mills
and Ministry Of Sound.
Two velvet-smooth cuts neatly crown the album: In Love
With Myself, a track that could hold its own against
Moroder & Oakey's Electric Dreams any day, is followed
by Higher, on which Chris Willis pays homage to the
style of phrasing and embellishment popularized by Stevie
Wonder, an approach that has proliferated in both R&B
and garage/house music à la New Jersey duo Blaze. GUETTA
BLASTER drives its point home with the metronomic Movement
Girl, featuring James Perry, and the killer Get Up,
on which macho riffs, the hysterical falsetto of Chris
Willis and screaming guitars swirl around a punchy beat.
On GUETTA BLASTER, David Guetta has not only successfully
avoided the pitfalls of second albums - he has truly
launched himself into a new dimension.
'Guetta Blaster' will be released in late January 2005.
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