Dimitri From Paris
The debonair French DJ takes a fresh look at the disco era

Courtesy of Air

Some DJs compete to bring clubbers the latest unreleased tracks from the hottest producers. Others rummage through the rarities bins to find forgotten gems to unleash on unsuspecting punters.

Dimitri From Paris is decidedly of the latter type. A kind of roving historian of dance music, Dimitri first came to worldwide fame when a collection of house classics he did for Playboy, A Night at the Playboy Mansion, became a surprise worldwide hit in 2000. In a Tokyo visit after a 2003 follow up, After the Playboy Mansion, Dimitri told Metropolis what a surprise this was.

“We had more success than I expected because this music is not exactly Top 40 material,” he said. “But people liked it and it introduced them to music that they may not have heard before. There isn’t much support for the music I like anymore, and the more we can get people into it, the longer it will stay alive.”

Dimitri’s current tour celebrates the release of a new retrospective album, Cocktail Disco, released here in Japan on bbe/Hostess. An encyclopedic, double CD set, Cocktail Disco looks back at a time in the late ’70s when DJing was just beginning to take on its modern form: the 12-inch single. Compared to its predecessor, the 7-inch, the long-playing 12-inch gave DJs enough time to mix tracks, the technique at the heart of contemporary club music.

On Cocktail Disco, many of these 12-inches are released uncut. Some top out at 17 minutes, which may be just a bit too much for the average listener. But musically, Dimitri has come up with another winner, shining a light on an era of fabulous excess and unbridled kitsch.

The set kicks off with a juicy disco cover by the Infamous Board of Directors’ of George Gershwin’s “Summertime,” and takes in such other numbers as a disco remake of “The Girl from Ipanema” by original singer Astrud Gilberto. It also includes several instrumental pieces like the deliciously cheesy “The Joy of You” by Paul Mauriat, whom Dimitri calls in liner notes, “the French king of elevator music.”

Much of this music, notes the DJ, will have been “gathering dust in thrift shops worldwide.” And probably with good reason. But at the same time, Cocktail Disco looks at a formative period in dance music with an intensity that only someone like Dimitri can summon. Key players are finally given their due. Producer Jacques Morali, for example, later gave the world the Village People, while pioneering disco drummer Earl Young bequeathed to house music many of its essential beats.
Platform shoes and flair jeans not included.

Cocktail Disco Release Party@Air, June 30. See club listings for details.

Yellow, June 23. See club listings for details.

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