A report on Institubes Express 999

A report on Institubes Express 999

19 October, 2007 | 11.21AM

• Written by: Gérome Darmendrail
• Filed under: Music News: french touch 2.0, institubes, institubes express 999

Sometimes, you don’t need a reason to party.

The Institubes crew organized ‘Institubes Express 999’, made up of two parties in two cities during one weekend in October.

The first night was in London at Fabric on October 12th, and the second was in Paris at Elysée-Montmartre on October 13th.

When we asked them why they decided to host two huge nights in two international cities during one weekend, they really didn’t know.

“Perhaps because it’s our 8th or 9th anniversary,” they said, laughing.

“Actually, we just wanted to have a good time with all the crew — this is the first time that all of the Institubes artists got together for a party.”

It was also the occasion to present the label’s last singings: Curses!, Jean Nipon, Das Glow and Bobmo, alongside the better known Para One, Tacteel, Surkin, Orgasmic and the charismatic Teki Latex, who never stopped MCing during the two nights.

Since around two years ago, Institubes has become one of the labels that embody what the press calls the “New French Sound” or “French Touch 2.0”, along with Ed Banger and Kitsuné.

And if Ed Banger is electronic dance music with a rock attitude, then Institubes would be electronic dance music with a hip hop attitude.

Their common ground: they got into house music through Daft Punk and the first French Touch producers, but they never stopped to listen to other styles of music.

They don’t care about boundaries; they just want to make it as fresh as possible.

Teki Latex and Tacteel – from French rap act TTC – launched Institubes in 2003, because they weren’t signed to a label at the time.

Their sound was too electronic for hip hop heads, and too hip hop for the electronic heads.

Four years later in Paris, unless you are at a minimal party, you would not be surprised to hear French hardcore rapper Booba or Atlanta’s D4L mixed with some electro house in a club.

It’s a state of mind that resonates outside of France, too; more than the new “French Touch”, we could talk about an “International Touch”.

Institubes [right] is linked up with Diplo and Low Budget in United States; Switch and Sinden in England; Modeselektor, Boys Noize and Siriusmo in Germany; and Modular in Australia.

This is international new dance music.

The kids know it, and on this Friday night at Fabric, they were there to prove it.

In room 1, you’d find The Glimmers, Walter Meego, Frank Tope, Pilooski and Busy P (AKA Pedro Winter, Daft Punk’s manager and Ed Banger’s boss), while in room 3, it was the entire Modular crew.

Room 2 was dedicated entirely to Institubes.

After Teki Latex and Tacteel mixed together, the night really started when Das Glow took the decks at midnight.

The room was already full when he played his classic ‘Cathedral’, the kind of track you can really enjoy in a club like Fabric.

Curses! followed with a live set.

That was our chance to discover this New Yorker, who has previously released music on Tigerbeat 6 under the name Drop The Line.

“Curses! is my Institubes-friendly pseudonym,” he explains of his music.

“I’m not going to make the same kind of music I used to with Drop The Line.”

His set at Fabric illustrated that the weird, grimey, metallic beats of Drop The Line have been replaced with efficient dance music inspired by electro, house, garage and ghetto tech music.

“Efficient” was also the term that applied to Jean Nipon (AKA DJ Aï), who smashed it up with a pure French house set cut with syncopated beats.

The audience was on fire.

The next day, Teki Latex exclaimed “Jean-Nipon killed us!”, referring to Nipon’s set, which was high in quality and in sound level.

Our ears can testify to that fact.

Next was Para One performing live with a powerful set — harder and rougher than usual. Para One’s set peaked when he played his remix of Daft Punk’s ‘Prime Time Of Your Life’ and his own hit ‘Dudun-Dun’.

The Frenchman explained to us that he played like that because he was at Fabric.

“It’s a large venue that’s dark, and the crowd is druggy.

“You just want to make it hard!”

Then, the 20 year old wonder kids Surkin and Bobmo came through with a back-to-back set fuelled with addictive ghetto-filtered house.

DJ Orgasmic ended the night, alternating between booty bass, electro, trance and southern hip hop.

Then, time to sleep a few hours before the Institubes crew was in the Eurostar to Paris.

On Saturday night, Elysée-Montmartre was sold-out, despite the fact that French rugby team had lost against England two hours prior.

The Paris night featured the same line-up, same beats and same level of enjoyment.

There was just one change: the Institubes crew had an even groovier sound.

After all, we were in Paris, and Parisians like it cooler.

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