Late night sessions all the way through ’til dawn
Up-and-coming duo John & Matt are rapidly becoming one of the most interesting tandems within the current dance music scene. John Gagliano and Mathieu Fortin, the men behind the John & Matt moniker have started their musical careers as live musicians but have quickly found their way into the electronic music panorama. Joining forces in 2013, John & Matt have managed to gain considerable ground in such a short time, landing Beatport’s charts with their very first attempt and attracting the attention of renowned labels such as: Sullivan Room Records, Natura Viva, Dear Deer Records, Da Way, Sex Panda White, Esclama Records and Reloaded Recordings. Whilst the two are now working on new projects which will certainly end 2015 in style, we’ve had the pleasure to sit down with them and go through the ten tracks that shaped their musical knowledge and influences along the years. Here are John & Matt’s all-time favourites: The tracks we’ve chosen are our personal favourites. They’re not intended to be the best tracks ever nor the most important ones, just the ones that inspired us the most – although many of them are absolute milestones in House and Techno history…
1. Inner City – Good Life [1988 – Virgin]
Detroit is where it all begun, where House and Techno arose. But if we have to choose from the different genres that populated the scene at its beginning – in the 70s – we’re probably more into the soulful side, rather than the Acid House one. So there you go, one of the most iconic and catchy vocals ever, combined with a killer synth bass-lines – unmatched by contemporary Deep House producers. It’s just perfect.
2. Giorgio Moroder – Chase [1978 – Casablanca]
This guy is the Yuri Gagarin of electronic music. He broke the boundaries and created electronic music as we know it, before Frankie Knuckles, before Kraftwerk, before everyone else. He’s too often linked with Italodisco, but he’s actually inspired every single producer active in the late 70s and the 80s, being de facto the Godfather of every form of club music. ‘Chase’ is one of our favourites.
3. Paul Johnson – Get Get Down [1999 – Moody]
We all remember where we were and what we were doing when we heard this for the first time. Probably the most successful hook of all times – so simple yet so freaking effective – straight from the 90s summer parties, into the pre- AutoTune era. With its perfect House beats, it’s still very hard not to dance to this day.
4. Loco Dice – How Do I Know [2008 – Desolat]
Normally we’re not into this genre, but this guy is a master. Basically 50% of the Minimal Techno produced in the past 10 years should pay copyright royalties to Loco Dice. We’re totally in love with his productions and his DJing skills are some of the best ones out there. This track is just perfect – every little percussion, every little effect, every little vocal cut is arranged like a small piece of a big, wonderful puzzle.
5. Ten Walls – Walking With Elephants [2014 – BOSO]
Unfortunately, Marijus Adomaitis (AKA Ten Walls, AKA Mario Basanov) turned out to be a homophobe and ruined his career with a stupid post on Facebook. But this can’t cancel the fact that his ‘Walking With Elephants’ has been a game-changer for thousands of DJs and producers out there – including us. The strings in the break are pure poetry, the kick is so dry and punchy and the overall atmosphere is just unique. Moreover, if you can have your track’s main theme played by a trombone and make it work, man, you must be a real badass!
6. Disclosure – When A Fire Starts To Burn [2013 – PMR/Island/Interscope]
When you talk UK Garage, you talk Disclosure. This specific one is amongst the most club-oriented tracks from this young, very talented duo. The organ main part is really cool – we could say that this is exactly the sound of this generation.
7. Alexander Robotnik – Dance, Boy, Dance [1984 – Materiali Sonori]
Now tell me again Italodisco isn’t cool. This 100% analog producer was one of the pioneers of Italodisco back in 70s, and by far one of our favourite ones. There’s been a direct connection between American and Italian producers in the early age of club music (everyone knows that), but some elements in this one – the pad sounds and the chord changes – are very similar to some Frankie Knuckles productions.
https://soundcloud.com/i-robots/alexander-robotnick-dance-boy
8. Whomadewho (Maceo Plex Remix) – Heads Above [2014 – Ellum]
This is the kind of Techno we like the most: even if the kick is enormous (if you happen to be in the dance floor when a DJ spins this, it makes you get worried about the ceiling falling down) and the bass-pad is so deep that it makes you vibrate like a leaf, it doesn’t mean you’re not allowed to have dreamy, ethereal vocals on top of that. This combo creates real magic, without necessarily being “commercial”.
9. Justice – D.A.N.C.E. [2007 – Ed Bangers]
This is just one among many others we could’ve chosen – it’s probably the one which best represents the Indie-Electro scene that flourished in continental Europe from 2005 to 2010 (more or less), with Justice, Bloody Beetroots, Boyz Noize, Gesaffelstein and so on. We must confess, we’re still in love with those compressed beats, funky bass-lines and 80s-like synths.
10. Goldie – Timeless: Inner City Life / Pressure / Jah [1995 – FFRR]
This is the real IDM date of birth. Drum ‘n Bass and Jungle’s date of birth, at least. It sounds so fresh that if it was produced today, it would still be considered a ground-breaking, truly innovating piece of genius. Every second of this 3-sections suite is a production master class for producers of every style.
