If Britain, Germany, and the U.S. are widely considered to be the capitals of electronic music, then France must surely be a proud second city. From Plain & Simple favourites Agoria and I:Cube to the legendary Francois K, that early Gallic house blueprint that re-wrote the book on freshness to blistering Ed Banger electro, the country has a lot of fantastic acts, producers, and DJs to answer for.
Take Joss Moog, for instance. Over the last half decade or so he has established an impressive reputation for blending four four beats with influences including acid jazz, funk, and soul, building up a strong back catalogue of work on labels such as Phil Weeks’ Parisian institution Robsoul Recordings. The preferred tunes of record players with a penchant for dirty grooves, these are the tracks that transcend both deep and jacking, firmly rooted in the underground, as it were, whilst offering enough immediate bite to hook the uninitiated with ease.
Late Nite Beats, Moog’s inaugural full length production LP, just landed via the aforementioned imprint, and by all accounts delivered exactly what we were hoping for. House music in one of its purist forms- so that’s a melting pot of various styles and genres, re-read for club dancefloors- as a soundtrack to what has, thus far, been the best summer in recent memory, few could ask for much more. Impressed, we decided to invite the man in question to field a few questions about his modus and future plans. Here’s what he had to say.
Hi Joss. Obviously your debut album just dropped, have you had much time to be busy with anything else?
Well, house music does take a lot of time. Of course I’ve been entirely busy with production for the past few months but now I’m spending my time on promotion and DJing stuff- listening to new tracks, recording podcasts and answering interviews. I’m also working on some future projects, the main one is the creation of a new label – Ondulé – which will begin soon.
The new LP then, was there a particular idea behind the overall production, or just Joss Moog tracks presented in an extended package?
Both are right. I wanted people to listen to all the kinds of house music I like to produce, even if the main difference is only about the tempo. Like most people I sometimes need cool music to listen to and sometimes a more punchy one to dance on. But finally, in every track of the LP, one can perceive my different influences; funk, jazz, soul and disco.
How do you feel about the reaction to the release so far?
Really cool at the moment. Especially toward French and Parisian people who send me messages, ask for interviews, radios and bookings, things that happened less with my latest EPs… Paris is becoming more underground at the moment and that’s good, I hope it won’t be just a short-term fashion phenomenon.
There are shades of early-Daft Punk audible on the record too. We have to ask- do you have any thoughts on Random Access Memories?
I don’t really have special thoughts with R.A.M. Of course it’s not underground and not avant-gardist, as Homework might have been. But I can’t blame them for that. I could say that they have already given me enough emotion and inspiration with what they produced with their past LPs.
R.A.M. is cool, fresh and disco, perfect for summer time.
We recently reviewed George Issakidis‘ debut album, another French producer who took a while (15 years) to bring out an LP. You waited seven. Do you think it’s better to develop over a long time, through EPs and singles, before tackling a full album?
It is not a question of musical maturation for me. Does time make you a better producer? Technically of course but from an artistic point of view I think I could have produced my first LP seven years ago. It would have been different that’s all. It’s all more about the format and the rhythm that we are used to in the electronic music industry. I mean house music is an ephemeral art and DJs are always looking for new jewels, so EPs and remixes are more suitable.
Finally, what’s the next step now Late Nite Beats is here?
My next step is the creation of a label, Ondulé, through which I want to share my vision of music with people- discovering new talented artists of course but not just that. I’d also like to develop live parties with a mix of electronic machines, live musicians and DJ sets. But I also have other ‘interactive’ ideas to make people participate in the label’s life- giving free samples, setting up remix conquests, and so on. All in all, I’m working on a lot of ideas.
Joss Moog Late Nite Beats is available now through Robsoul Recordings.
