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Name: Étienne de Crécy
Occupation: Producer, DJ
Nationality: French
Current release: Étienne de Crécy recently re-released the groundbreaking Super Discount album as a 25th anniversary deluxe 4x10 inch pressing. In 2021, he also published an EP with new material, Commercial EP3. For most of the past decade, however, de Crecy has been, as he points out in this interview, a "slow man" when it comes to producing, deciding instead to focus on his DJ career.

This interview, meanwhile, was conducted in 2011 for Beat magazine, at a time when he was still comparatively productive, having just published 5 EPs of fresh material within a few months' time. In it, we briefly touched upon the tracks, albums and projects which cemented him as one of the key figures of the French scene: Super Discount and the incomparable Motorbass in particular. In many respects, Super Discount, which also featured Air and Alex Gopher, kickstarted the French house sound and included one of his most well-known tracks, the infectuous "Prix Choc".

[Read our Jean-Benoît Dunckel of Air interview]

Motorbass, on the other hand, with its fusion of hip hop and house, would prove to be prophetic, first displaying a connection which would come to exert a vital influence on electronic music until today. Pansoul, their one finished full-length, was also one of the great electronic masterpieces of the 90s, seamlessy connecting underground vibes with mass appeal. At the time of our conversation, a second Motorbass album was still a theoretical possibility – although de Crecy already ruled it out on the ground of the naive and playful way Pansoul was created, which the duo simply would not be able to repeat. Zdar's early passing in 2019 has since unfortunately made these thoughts obsolete.

If you enjoyed this interview with Étienne de Crécy and would like to explore his work in more depth, visit his personal website. He is also on Instagram, Facebook, twitter, and Soundcloud.



I'd already been in Paris for a while when I first experienced techno! From there, I discovered this music at raves in Paris in 1992. There were already a lot of people at those events. So when Phillipe Zdar and started making music together in early 1993, we entered an existing scene.

For me personally, Philip Zdar and Alex Gopher were the producers which exerted the biggest influence on me. But we were also really influenced by the American scene, mostly electronic music from Detroit, Chicago and New York City. The early pieces by Kenny Dope Gonzales in particular. He tought me how to bring this fat hip hop sound into house music.

But the Internet didn’t exist yet and financially, we had a really low budget. That's why why we couldn’t afford to collaborate with our stars.

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Pansoul, the Motorbass album I did with Phillipe Zdar, was mainly created with an AKAI s1000 and Cubase running on an ATARI 1024. (laughs) We mixed it with a Mackie, using a few good effects devices, such as the H3000 & the Lexicon 480 reverb. I mixed Super Discount with nothing but the first affordable digital mixer, the Yamaha 01R.



Will there ever be a second Motorbass album? I don't think so. That first album Philippe and I created is such a beautiful adventure. We are both really proud of it.

It was made with a lot of innocence and freshness. We just couldn’t find that again today!

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I’m proud of "Prix Choc", my contribution to Super Discount, because the sample that the song is based on is not easy to recognise!



When I listened to the original record, I loved the background but there was a saxophone playing a solo throughout. Which meant that I had to sample the "clear" segments between the solo notes and then re-assemble the loop from scratch without the sax.

Try doing that with just an S1000 and an ATARI!!

Actually, when it comes to sampling, what I'm after aren't the melodies so much. It's the production. What I appreciate about a sample is the sound of the record and the production. In fact, I never just use the melody the way it was in the original. I always try to change it and mould it according to my own taste. That said, I no longer samples that much today

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Chaos and accidents are essential! I never had an idea of music before I started making it myself. I have no inspiration in the traditional sense, but I do need some sound to get started.

Samples gave me a way to start a track in the beginning. In 2005, however, I bought a synth, and since then, it's been synths which provide the impetus. I start by finding a sound or entering random notes on my TB303. Whatever happens will then drive me to make the track.

[Read our feature on the Roland TB-303]

It can be a long process. I love this music because it's "fast music", usually done fast and consumed fast. I love that but myself, I'm a slow man!! Maybe that why some of my track need more time to be consumed.