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Dimitri From Paris.
While there is undoubtedly more than one person named Dimitri living in Paris, there is only one person who can be recogniSed by a world wide audience quite simply as Dimitri From Paris. Most people know Dimitri for his work on the Playboy-themed pair of compilations, ‘A Night At The Playboy Mansion’ and ‘After The Playboy Mansion.’ His signature sexy French disco-inspired style lent a touch of old-school class to what could have been dirty old man porn music. Dimitri From Paris has given his touch to over a hundred different remixes, from Bjork to The O’Jays, and I talked to Dimitri From Paris from Paris (sorry, I couldn’t resist) about his latest effort, ‘In The House’ the next in the Defected label’s highly regarded series.
"Defected have always been of a high standard of quality and very consistent. It’s a bit of an honour, really, to be asked to extend the series and doing compilations is something that I really like. I spent a lot of time selecting the songs and mixing them together, fine tuning everything, and doing special edits. For me it was a true labour of love, so I hope people can enjoy that aspect of it.
"I mean, in two CDs you need to cover seven or eight hours worth of a set, so I was trying to get out a more diverse sound, not just tracks one after the other. I like to play uplifting songs with a lot of soul, and I think people appreciate this. But then again, I don’t know if what I’m doing is having any impact, after all – I am playing other people’s music. The Defected ‘In The House’ series, it’s a big thing. I knew that Kenny [Dope] was going to do something [namely the edition of ‘In The House’ immediately prior to Dimitri From Paris], and I’m a big fan of Kenny’s so it was definitely a hard thing to follow up. I mean, there’s always a lot of pressure when I do something, because I always want it to be better than the previous. I know it’s the worst pressure you can put on yourself."
This compilation carries one of Dimitri’s hardest to find remixes (until now!), a brilliant recording of Crystal Waters’ Gypsy Woman over Montefiore Cocktail. "The Gypsy Woman track that appears on ‘In The House’, I did about three years ago. I got an accapella version of Montefiore Cocktail and I loved the instrumentation, but I thought it missed the original vocals, so that’s how I came up with the idea of putting Gypsy Woman over the top. I liked the sound, so I started playing it, and I also gave it to some friends and they played it to huge reaction. People were always coming up to me and asking if it was going to be released, but I had to tell them no: it was two tracks from different record companies and it was going to be a nightmare in terms of legal clearance. But Defected managed to arrange it in a snap, so here it is."
As a fellow with extensive past experience working with record companies and trying to clear samples and more often than not meeting a barrier of red tape, Dimitri From Paris expresses a passionate dislike for the recording industry’s current approach. "I especially like the Lil’ Louie song, where if you listen to the lyrics, the guy’s really prophesying the current state of the recording industry and specifically dance music. I mean, that track is over 10 years old, but it says exactly where we are today: things are getting too dark and uneventful, there is not a lot of surprises, just a loud rhythm with a drumkick and a bassline. It’s not a good state, and it’s been this way for too long a while. There’s just been too much bullshit, and I think that it’s going to change in this coming year, we are going to hear new and interesting stuff. There’s been a lot of people frustrated because record companies don’t want to release their new sounds, but they are going to get organised and new things will be out this coming month. Dance music is going back to where it should have stayed, in the clubs, as opposed to being a part of pop music.
"In the past five years or so, record companies have been trying to market it as a pop music thing, and a lot of producers were just jumping in the bandwagon. They were taking pop songs and loading it with cheesy elements just so they could get radio airplay. I think that wasn’t a good idea. But I think it’s going to be going back to the ‘underground’ where it should have stayed. We need to see people think about music in a more creative way for this, to make music people can just shake their butts to. I guess if there’s any sort of message that I want to get across with my music, that would be it."
Indy Lin
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‘Dimitri From Paris: In The House’ is out now through Defected/Shock.
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