WMC bomb here: Analog People In A Digital World ‘Rose Rouge’

WMC bomb here: Analog People In A Digital World ‘Rose Rouge’

16 April, 2009 | 10.01AM

• Written by: Terry Church
• Filed under: Music News: analog people in a digital world, hysterical, matteo esse, sant, wmc track

Parisian producer Ludovic Navarre was the brains behind St. Germain, the famous jazz outfit that produced, amongst others, the classic ‘Rose Rouge’.

Navarre’s use of kick drums and analog bass machines (in favour of a real bassist) surreptitiously introduced jazz fans to house music, but it’s doubtful that he could have ever imagined that nine years later that influence would return full circle.

It did however triumphantly, at last month’s annual WMC gathering of dance music fans in Miami. You couldn’t go near a house or techno club without hearing Analog People In A Digital World’s remake of ‘Rose Rouge’.

Navarre’s music is so timeless and classy, and because he always envisioned it to collide with house (a 4/4 beat brings order to jazz chaos in the closing stages of the original of ‘Rose Rouge’), ‘Rose Rouge’ has become a favourite for many a producer to plunder, especially in the era of deep house-influenced techno that relies upon the inclusion of ‘real’ instruments and organic drums.

Luciano and Rhadoo’s unreleased edit of ‘Rose Rouge’ perhaps did it best, for it also included jazz singer Marlena Shaw crooning “I want you to get together, put your hands together one time” (which itself was based on a vocal Navarre sampled), yet APDW’s remake is itself a worthy rekindling of Navarre’s genius.

Taking just a small instrumental sax loop from towards the end of the original, APDW drop if gracefully into a rolling set of breakdowns which each build up towards heavy tech house grooves.

Retaining the opulent instrumental tension of the original, APDW’s remix brings a certain structure that will appeal to pretty much all DJs in the house and techno spectrum.

It’s always interesting to find cyclicality in an idea (hence the inclusion of the Ouroboros image), but this is probably one spin-off Navarre didn’t forsee from his St. Germain project.

Video: St. Germain ‘Rose Rouge’ (Original)

Here’s the original music video for St. Germain ‘Rose Rouge’.

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