Yet another reason the French have reached Mt Everest in the realm of electronic music, while the rest of the world is trekking molehills, looking up through the hazy sunshine sans-sunglasses.
Chinese Man are neither Chinese, nor just one man. They’re a collective of French DJs and producers come together as both record label and ‘band’, if you will, layering beats, samples, melodies and just about every language to create a veritable dogpile of deliciousness.
The song above was originally released in 2007 and rose to popularity after being featured on a German car commercial. Apparently even the Europeans are breaking artists more successfully via consumer advertising these days.
To date, Chinese Man has released a duo of “Groove Sessions” albums. Although I’ve only heard a handful of singles from either, not one tune sounds anything like its companions.
They remind me of The Avalanches: an Australian group who set the standard on stuff like this but has yet to follow up their first masterpiece with well… anything. This could be the placeholder fans of eclectic, intelligent, richly-layered, sample-driven dance/funk/soul/world beats have been waiting for. It’s legit. Hold on tight.
