Classic Album: Cassius, 1999

Virgin, 1999

As Cassius, Philippe Zdar and Hubert Blanc-Francard, aka Boom Bass, helped usher in a decade of Franco-Funk Breaks and Filtered Disco House onto the global Dance music scene. Along with outfits like Bob Sinclar, Daft Punk and Stardust, they helped reinvigorate the stale script that lazy producers were reading from. Bored with a straight-up four-to-thefloor approach to beatmaking, they dug deep into their collective influences of Hip-Hop, Detroit Techno, Minneapolis Funk, NY Electro, and Disco, and stuffed the lot into their restless samplers.

Like their Gallic chums, Cassius were a breath of fresh air, and their debut album, 1999, was a joyous blast of loose licks that made most tracks doing the round seem rigid by comparison. But the immediacy of their music has as much to do with the deadline they were under as it does their magical French touch.

“We only had three weeks to finish the album,” says Philippe Zdar. “It was insane. We rented a studio in Paris and said, ‘Okay, we have this amount of time and this amount of money. We have to get it finished by then.’ So we came in and worked late into the night, every night, until it was done.”

With Zdar riding the desk and Boom Bass throwing around chunks of dusty samples and synth melodies, they worked up a storm in the studio. The resulting spontaneous grooves were buoyed by inventive drum programming, inspired loops and chops, and benefited massively from the pair’s meticulous eye for killer vocal hooks. Standout numbers like Cassius 1999, Planetz, Hey Babe and Supa Crush all ring with echoes of Fela, James Brown, Prince, Bambaataa and Saunderson. It was 30 years’ worth of their collective musical influences wrung through the mangle of late ’90s Parisian clubbing. The results were très bon, to say the least.

“We didn’t have time, so we couldn’t afford to waste any,” says Zdar. “I think it helped us get the best ideas down because they were so fresh in our minds. That’s why people still listen to it today.”

The recently reissued 1999 is available on double vinyl, while Cassius’ new album, Ibifornia, is out now on Ed Banger Records.