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France's DJ Gregory on Africanism & Tropical Soundclash

Author: Jonty Adderley
Saturday, October 26, 2002
Specialising in soulful, quality house since catching the dance music bug in 1990, Paris-based DJ Gregory is one of France's highest rated DJs, both by clubbers and peers such as Dimitri from Paris, Daft Punk and his latest contemporary Bob Sinclar. Alongside Sinclar, he recently mixed a double CD called Africanism, which has already sold 100,000 copies worldwide, despite not yet being released in the UK.

Snapped up recently by Defected, it's scheduled to hit UK shops shortly as is his hotly tipped tribal house single Tropical Soundclash, already a firm favourite with the likes of Roger Sanchez and Danny Rampling. Popping into London last week for a spot of promotion plus his own principal hobby record shopping, Gregory met up with Skrufff's Jonty Adderley and revealed he's uncertain about the UK vibe.

"I find the UK a little scary in a way because you never know what to expect from the crowd because their tastes change so quickly," he revealed. "The club scene is so big and at the same time so small, because you can hear most of the same music in the big clubs whereas it's in the smaller clubs where you find the appreciation for the next musical movement."


Skrufff (Jonty Adderley): You've already sold 100,000 copies of Africanism worldwide, did you expect such high sales-

DJ Gregory: "No we didn't expect such big sales, especially because it was made very spontaneously, with the original idea just to release the tracks as 12 inch records, solely for DJs. We called it Africanism because the idea was about the idea of doing something primitive, fast and quick, though very much intended just for DJs. On the other hand the CD did very well because most of the 12 inches were heavily played in clubs."

Skrufff: What got you interested in dance music initially-

DJ Gregory: "I've always been interested in basic house music, from Chicago, Detroit and New York, just a little bit towards the soulful side. I was originally into hip hop and I got interested in house from listening to Laurent Garnier's show on the radio. One of my best friends moved to New York and I started visiting there every year, buying records and bringing them back to France. Very quickly I discovered that I liked that kind of New York house much more than dance music from Germany or Belgium, all that rave type stuff."

Skrufff: Where were you hanging out in New York-

DJ Gregory: "The first place was The Sound Factory, I think Junior Vasquez was the first DJ I heard there, playing his after hours set at 8am. Vasquez was throwing great parties in those days though now his music is not 'my cup of tea' (to my taste) at all."

Skrufff: A phrase on the album's press release refers to the trance element of traditional African music, did you ever explore psychedelic trance-

DJ Gregory: "Not at all. I always liked the idea of music with repetition and hypnotic effects, but not with trance. The idea of 'boomph, boomph, boomph, boomph' (minimicking doof beat) is not trance at all because musically it's not interesting and the way it's done with the synth I don't find interesting. When I speak with guys who are making trance they always speak about the purity of the frequency of the synth sound; for me I like raw music. I don't like very clean music."

Skrufff: When Daft Punk emerged in 1996, loads of other bands like Cassius and Kojak suddenly appeared, why didn't you-

DJ Gregory: "There's a different story for everybody, when Daft Punk came along I'd already been DJing with DJ Deep for a number of years. When they came along within one year they banged everybody's heads and nobody expected that. It was amazing how quickly they did it but there was already another bunch of guys into (liking) house music. Cassius had already been recording as Motorbass beforehand, Kojak was another story and another way of seeing music, not related to house music. I like those guys and respect what they do but it's different. Daft Punk broke something, Kojak<
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