This post ran originally on THUMP UK.
Few things in life are finer than settling down with another Teki Latex mix-masterpiece. The Sound Pellegrino co-founder’s been a longtime favourite of ours on THUMP, and for good reason: very few people on earth can do what the Parisian people’s champ does with a pair of CDJs and a couple of USBs. As a DJ he’s become renowned for his invigorating approach to the artform, a technical wizard who never forgets that dance music is made for, well, dancing.
On last year’s utterly absurd 100% Radio Hits(THUMP’s number two mix of 2016), the former TTC member proclaimed himself to be “the king of the blend,” and we’re more than happy to watch him astride the throne all day long. Like any DJ worth their salt Latex is fully conversant in mood, always aware of where to take a crowd and when to do it. His latest triumph, which you can stream below, sees him playing things relatively straight. Well, straight by Teki standards anyway.
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In an age where a million mixes flood the perma-scrolling timelines of all and sundry, and everyone with a cracked copy of Serato and a few YouTube rips can upload a solid hour of trudging tech-house to an uncaring audience of practically no one, a mix really needs to say something of note to stand out. Bérite Club Music is more than a mix—it’s a manifesto for a new approach to what club music is and what it does.
Born out of music made by young producers Latex met through his Overdrive Infinity sessions—weekly DJ sets broadcast from a studio in Paris—Bérite Club Music sees the selector working towards a new kind of French club music. The artists he’s assembled and the work they produce are reflective of the variety of influences that zip through contemporary French culture in the 21st century; a generation of artists who consume everything from Afrotrap to Baltimore house, ballroom to kuduro, gqom to grime, creating a new future built on the constant re-contextualization of the past.
Latex’s early meetings with some of the producers featured on the tape took place at the aforementioned studio. Tragedy struck when a gas leak led to a massive explosion in the building next door to the studio. The damage was so severe that Overdrive Infinity and several other projects based there had to be terminated. This disadvantage only spurred them on to produce something concrete, to reshape their cultural reality.
“We no longer had a place to meet regularly but that idea of a new French sound kept flourishing, becoming more and more concrete as we all kept getting together at club nights and whatnot,” Latex says. “Towards the end of 2016 the first Bérite Club music tracks (named after Rue de Bérite in honor of the street of the defunct studio) started appearing and being played at small club nights, and just like that a movement was born.”
The result is a thrilling call to arms, a melange of pretty much everything exciting about club music in the last decade or so, an unabashedly propulsive piece of work that’s laying down a blueprint for what the future—in the right hands—could sound like if we give it the chance. A new mix from Teki Latex is always a very, very special occasion, and Bérite Club Music is another sensational addition to the master’s immense back catalogue. Latex and his cohorts are ushering in a new era in French club culture, and we’re incredibly excited to see where they go from here.
Tracklist:
Molaré – Bouca
De Grandi – 94120 Groove
MHD x OK Lou – Champions League Defeat (Detente Blend)
Aero Manyelo – Yoh
DJ Gregory & Africanism – Block Party
Sylvere – Emergency Call
Maddslinky – Compuphonic (Le Dom edit)
DJ Gregory, Sidney Samson & Dama S – Dama S Salon (Dub)
Bambounou – Dogon
De Grandi – BYE
L-Vis1990 – Ballad 4D (Sylvere edit)
Sunareht – Hyul 10
De Grandi – Cloud
Detente – Generation Assassin (refix)
Franko – Coller la petite
DJ Shoe – Poing
Le Dom – ???
ZaZa TWiNS – CouPer DCaler-OCTOBER 2008
French Fries – Senta (Bambounou remix)
Things With Wings – Yoruba Lesson
Sunareht – Main Sequence
Fréquences Fortes – Toi je sais pas si j’te bérite
Superficie – Cerol
Images – Les Démons De Minuit (Le Dom refix)
Gradur – Oblah ft. MHD & Nyda (Retina Set edit)
Zini – Sirenzz
Feadz & Douster – DJ Quik’s Hair
Le Dom – Stamina
Modjo – Lady (Frequences Fortes raw chops and loops edit)
De Grandi – Sharp
Clubkelly – UDDS
DJJ – hard rum track
Martel Ferdan – Luz
De Grandi – Plans (le Dom edit)
The Phantom – Gothic (De Grandi edit)
De Grandi – Sapristi !
Maahlox Le Vibeur – Tuer pour Tuer
Sunareht & Sylvere – Vervain
Inkke – Pioneer
Thomas Bangalter – What To Do
Le Dom – Bayern (Le Dom & De Grandi refix)
