Weekend Weapons: BeatauCue

Weekend Weapons: BeatauCue

31 August, 2011 | 1.43PM

• Written by: Beatportal
• Filed under: Music News:

In a city that’s all about hot young talent, Paris’ BeatauCue are truly on fire. They kicked off their career in late 2009 with remixes for the likes of Turbo, Lektroluv and Man Recordings, signed to Kitsune for a steady stream of EPs, and have gone on to bring their unique style of fidgety electro to reworks for Armand Van Helden & Steve Aoki, Don Rimini, and Kylie Minogue.

They recently dropped their ”Falcon Punch” EP for Kitsune, taking their sound larger than ever before. We spoke to BeatauCue about their raptor-pummeling sound; read on for the interview and their hand-picked Weekend Weapons selections.

First of all, who is BeatauCue? It looks like you guys have been putting out music since 2009 or so; how did you meet, and how did you come to start making music together?

We are Alexis & Médéric, 21 & 20 year old French DJs/producers from Caen in Basse-Normandie.

We met at school when we were 15, and later we found out that we were enjoying the same kind of music, so we started making some in our room two years ago.

It looks like you’ve done as many remixes as original productions. How did you get so many remix commissions so early in your career?

We got attention from the big names with our Major Lazer – “Pon De Floor” remix and our Brodinski & Noob – “Peanuts Club” remix. They got played by Crookers, Diplo, Armand Van Helden, Erol Alkan, etc… A lot of remix propositions came after that and we did them all. That’s why there are so many BeatauCue remixes.

How do you compare the process of making remixes to making your own music? Do you prefer one to the other? Is making remixes easier or harder?

Making remixes is really similar for us, both are about taking elements and putting them together to have a working track. Making an original is better because you can do whatever you want, but remixing is easier when the original is a quality track.

How would you say that your music has evolved since you started producing? You’re still quite tough and bleepy, but with songs like “Close,” there’s a softer side than before.

First of all, we love a lot of different things in EDM, different feelings or genres, as some say. We love dark tracks like Klaus’ “Fens” or James’ “Time Ends” as much as pink uplifting ones like Fadi’s “Ticket To The Sky” or Avicii’s “Levels,” and stoopid tracks like Dr Gonzo’s “Bust Em Up” as much as classy ones like Cirez D’s “Glow” or Deadmau5’s “Cthulhu Sleeps.” If we could mix all these feelings in one track, we’d do it, but it’s still a bit difficult.

To answer your question, we are more able to produce tracks that we like right now than at the start, and hopefully it will continue this way. In the future we will probably work on more fun, more groove and some sweet melodies.

Besides electro and techno, which styles excite you most? “Cytise” has a sparse, percussive feel that sounds a little bit like UK funky or Dutch house.

Dubstep of course, calm, dark, or over-banging—but only if it’s well produced, by Doctor P, Skrillex etc… Moombahton is pretty exciting, with its groovy downtempo feeling. UK funky is interesting too, but we don’t get why there are so much people using those deep/soul chords mixed with banging 808 drums—banging drums alone would be better.

About “Cytise,” the principal inspiration at start of the conception of the track was Sébastien Léger groove, that’s why there are those little snares playing fast and those tweaked delay transforming vocal cuts into buildups. We don’t know exactly what it is in terms of style—that’s why she is interesting, she is a bit different.

What are your DJ sets like? From a video from Cabaret Vert Festival on your Facebook page, it looked like you were playing dubstep—but the sound was so distorted, it was hard to tell.

In our DJ sets we try to make the energy growing up progressively, starting with techno and ending with bangers. We play mostly 4/4 128bpm tracks, but we sometimes try to make people dance on different stuff, it can be Moombahton in the middle of the set or banging noisy dubstep in the end when people want more than more. That’s what happened at Cabaret Vert, so we gave them Benny Benassi’s “Cinema (Skrillex Remix)” and they loved it.

Beataucue’s Weekend Weapons

BeatauCue, “Cytise” [Kitsune]

We use this one in the beginning to go from techno/tech-house to more banging beats. When it’s played at the right moment, the crowd is like woh!

Sharam, “God Always” [Yoshitoshi]

Still in the beginning, we use this one to tease the crowd a little bit more, with this dubstep bassline dropping by surprise, without breaking the tech-house groove. Awesome track!

Crookers Present Dr Gonzo, “Bust Em Up (Star Traxx Remix)” [Southern Fried]

It wasn’t easy to make people dance on the original but this remix is perfect, it keeps the fun and craziness of the original while driving a heavy 4/4 groove that everybody can enjoy.

Oui’wack, “Jungle Wars” [PM Music]

A really big drum track—the groove is intense and the drums are really loud, it’s perfect to tease the crowd and kill two birds with one stone.

Yelle, “Safari Disco Club (BeatauCue remix)”

Yelle - Safari Disco Club (BeatauCue remix) by BeatauCue

This is one of our favorites of our own tracks. It always gets everybody’s hands in the air for the last drop. Variations of the groove in the first drop are based on the fact that most of people don’t fist pump for more than 15 seconds for this kind of drop, true story.

Alex Kenji, “No Matter What They Say” [303 Lovers]

It’s got a monotone techno feeling, but it’s not too long for a casual crowd. The whole track drives everybody hands in the air for the last drop. You can only have a win with this one. We usually play it in the second half of the set.

BeatauCue, “Disque Oh! (High Rankin Remix)” [Kitsune]

The best remix of our “Disque Oh!” track, sounds like a dubstep, 128bpm track, so it’s easy to play some noisy dubstep after this one, but only if people want more noise!

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