Featured Playlist
- 16 Songs
- The Rawkers - I <3 U SO Edition · 2010
- Oh My My · 2016
- 1999 (Deluxe Edition) · 1999
- 1999 (Deluxe Edition) · 1999
- Au Rêve (Deluxe Edition) · 1999
- Au Rêve (Deluxe Edition) · 1999
- Au Rêve (Deluxe Edition) · 1999
- 15 Again (Deluxe Edition) · 2006
- 1999 (Deluxe Edition) · 1999
- W18 - Single · 2018
Essential Albums
- Before they became Cassius, Philippe Zdar and Hubert Blanc-Francard got their start crafting luxurious boom-bap for the French rapper MC Solaar. UNKLE’s James Lavelle liked their beats so much he commissioned a new round of instrumentals from the duo, signing them to his Mo Wax label as La Funk Mob. But it was their debut album as Cassius, 1999, that really made their name. Picking up where Motorbass, Zdar’s short-lived duo with Etienne de Crécy, had left off, Cassius threw themselves into silky, disco-hued productions that would prove elemental in the development of the French touch sound. Where later Cassius albums would flirt with more overt pop crossover, the slow-burning 1999 is more controlled in its intensities. A playful Gwen McCrae sample on “Feeling for You” is one of the record’s few identifiable vocals. Instead, the duo concentrate their energy on hypnotic dance grooves wrapped in funk synths and carefully filtered scraps of soul. Whatever the album’s title might suggest, it’s a sound defined primarily by its timelessness.
Albums
- 2017
Music Videos
Artist Playlists
- The house experimentalists helped develop the French touch sound.
- The Cassius producer’s groove emanated far beyond the dance floor.
Singles & EPs
- 2018
About Cassius
Parisian duo Cassius may not be as famous as Daft Punk, but they played just as crucial a role in the creation of the so-called French Touch, a distinctive style of disco-kissed house that ruled European dance floors in the ‘90s. Hubert Blanc-Francard (a.k.a. Boombass) and Philippe Cerboneschi (a.k.a. Philippe Zdar) met in the late ’80s, producing for French rapper MC Solaar and then founding the Mo’ Wax project La Funk Mob, where they pioneered a silky fusion of deep house and hip-hop. On their 1999 debut album as Cassius, 1999, they deepened their funk while sharpening their melodic instincts, and on 2002’s Au Rêve, they went pop on anthems like “The Sounds of Violence” and “Under Influence”, bridging the gap between American indie-dance basement parties and Ibizan open-air superclubs. After 2006’s 15 Again, Zdar increasingly focused on production work for acts like Franz Ferdinand and Cat Power, but the duo reunited with 2016’s spirited Ibifornia. Sadly, their second act was short-lived: Two days before the release of 2019’s Dreems, Zdar died in a fall from a building. In honor of his friend, Boombass declared Cassius finished. Despite their tragic end, the duo’s work remains a heartfelt testament to late nights in the flush of youth.
- ORIGIN
- Paris, France
- FORMED
- 1996
- GENRE
- Electronic