No. 13 x 2012 / Philippe Renaux Special No.7

I just had to re-visit this old special feature I did on the french cosmic mastermind Philippe Renaux, since I found this extraordinary gem on the B-side of the Night Heroes Moroder-medley (produced by Silvio Puzzolu who also made a Kraftwerk-medley under the name Between The Sheets and produced the legendary Bagarre project). Sidetrack: how come nobody makes medleys anymore? Wouldn't everybody want to hear an Alden Tyrell-produced medley of Patrick Cowley tracks? Or a Lindström-produced medley of Philippe Renaux for that matter.
OK back to the matter at hand, O.I.M. is a collaboration between Renaux, Puzzolu & Luigi "Svengile" Venegoni (who was is Stratospheric Band) so you know it's gonna get heavy when these dudes get together. They start off with a tight uptempo boogie-beat straight out of 1983 and then throw in some surf guitars (!?) to keep it weird all the way to the synth/vocal chorus. The acronym of the song title may puzzle you at first (what could it mean? Open Information Model? Operator Interface Module?Ordained Interfaith Minister?) - the answer is of course much simpler than that, it's just a vocal translation and mimic of the squelshing sound that they churn out on that synthesizer. Genius!


NIGHT HEROES - O.I.M.

No.46 x 2010

Curtis Black of the Phantom Dogs Disco outfit takes a spin on the B-side of the french cosmo-rockers epic Philippe Renaux-produced Future Woman 12" single, which the Academy covered extensively in a recent special.
Here it seems the guys are left to figure out things themselves (no Renaux or Honeyman on credits), which they had no trouble with. The hissing vocals are hilariously "sexy".
This version kicks out most of the mellow string parts and focuses on extending the dubbed out percussion climax, even adding a little extra echo to the mix.

ATOMIC CONTROL - CURTIS BLACK EDIT

No.30 x 2010 / Philippe Renaux Special No.6

Definitely the most exciting and mysterious record I have found from the early career of Philippe Renaux.

Released in 1982 on Clever, Renaux own french sublabel to italo dominators Carrere. This however, is the amazing sleeve for a release on the Mexican label Peerless, which is the only release of this song where Renaux is credited under his own name. For the Clever release he has resumed his old alias Phil Honeyman.

Here we find him alongside Claude Mainguy on writing credits (a long-time collaborator who also worked with Rockets and as recording engineer on the Paris Casablanca record, as well as co-writing a B-side with Renaux for Massieras Venus Gang single Space Woman in 1981, just prior to this record).

The Clever release states Derek Arden on production credits, which is most likely another alias of Renaux since the Peerless sleeve credits both Renaux and Mainguy.

Too bad then that they never worked again under such circumstances, since this is a profoundly confusing and creative mix of early electro, classic disco and balearic guitars. Kicking of in a Timmy Thomas mode on the keyboards backed by stiff drum machines, this trip gets more funky by every second - adding vocoders and Funkytown-styled breaks before turning into a fullfledged anthem when Gil Slavin (a former back-up singer to Grace Jones) takes to the microphone.

Not your average disco record, and a worthy conclusion to our Philippe Renaux Special here at the Disco Academy.

BRAIN - D.I.X.O.

No.29 x 2010 / Philippe Renaux Special No.5

It's time for some cosmic feelings again. Another collaboration with his old bandmates of the Rockets. This is their "third" album, from1979 (the hectic discography of the band resulted in a lot of lumping together of previously released songs in re-packeged releases).

Here we have Renaux featured on writing duty again on the track Cosmic Feeling, but seemingly not involved with the instrumentation this time (although I can't be sure about that, my correspondance with Mr. Renaux has been sporadic and most the time he could not remember the specific tracks). Anyway, very enjoyable cosmic disco rock.


ROCKETS - COSMIC FEELING

No.28 x 2010 / Philippe Renaux Special No.4

In 1979 Renaux produced and arranged this rather conventional disco project, working alongside colleague Rachid Bahri for the first time. They would later work together on a disco project called Modesty (named after its female vocalist we can assume) which resulted in a couple of singles.

Letting the cosmic fad rest a while, the theme here revolves around the luxurious pleasures of some exotic cities, namely Casablanca and Cairo. This idea however seems to have evolved from one of the album cuts on the Renaux cosmic masterpiece Discosmic Dancer, called "Casablanca is alright for dancing tonight".
Suitable to the theme, this is glittering and smooth disco aimed to please. A saxophone solo a bit on the cheesy side, a proper uptempo choir refrain and some steady drums. But the male vocalist really does a superb job of infusing decadence into the mix. And there's a very loveable break with oriental flutes and a synthesizer baseline.


PARIS CASABLANCA - DANCING IN CAIRO

No.27 x 2010 / Philippe Renaux Special No.3

Renaux was long involved with the people behind the band/project Rockets, even during their forming years under different aliases, no doubt because of their shared love for the cosmic. Mainly credited as a writer, he penned their single Rocket Man in 1974 (as The Rocketters). In fact, according to reliable sources (i.e. the man himself!), he was the bands first singer
He is also credited as the writer of their most enduring production - Future Woman. What is less known is that he actually does the vocals as well as plays all instruments on this song (thank you for the scoop Philippe!).
This has the smell of J.P. Massiera all over it, whom Renaux worked with in 1976 as co-writer & producer (as well as bass player under the pseudonym Phil Honeyman) on the Jessy Joyce record Love Me.
Even though they apparently never worked again, it seems that they both took a lot of inspiration and ideas with them from that collaboration and channelled it into their coming work in the field of cosmic crazyness. Massieras later hit song Space Woman bears an uncanny resemblance to this Renaux piece. A friendly paraphrase or jealous rip-off?
As the concept of Rockets formed much around the idea of a rock band (they did actually tour as live musicians, including lasers and smoke machines of course), their sound is a mix of heavy psyched out rock riffs and funky electronic disco rhythms (needless to say, they're one of the greatest bands ever).
This sounds crystallizes to perfection in Future Woman, which Renaux made for them in 1975. A single (under their alias Les Rockets) was released the same year, however I favored the much harder and bass-driven 1976 Long Version from the self-titled Rockets album for this post.


ROCKETS - FUTURE WOMAN (LONG VERSION)

No.26 x 2010 / Philippe Renaux Special No.2

Since most of Renauxs best productions are dated to 1978, I'm not sure in which precise order they were released, so I figured why save the best for last and keep all you well-read disco afficionados patiently expecting this post to drop, one of the most revered and sought after cosmic disco albums of the past years, as well as being the arguably most amazing effort from the hands and mind of Mr. Philippe Renaux.
The album is Discosmic Dance, by the "artist" Chris Craft (who seems to be an orange coloured rip-off of the Silver Surfer).
In the same over the top fashion as the Van Duyne album, most of the track titles here involve the word "cosmic" in order not to leave anyone guessing as to what the theme is. But what makes this such an extraordinary album in comparison is the comic book-like affection in which this concept is embraced.
Also, of course, it's all about the music. Harsh and broody semi-electronic instrumentals far to the leftfield of the disco mainstream sound and at times with one foot in the door of the avantgarde.
It's hard to say whose intentions spawned this resulting record. One could imagine Renaux setting out to cash in on the current trend of all things cosmic and naturally turning to synthesizers in order to fuse this element into a disco sound. But amidst all the fun of jerking out wierd rhythms and tones from these machines he must have got too caught up to even try to make dumb danceable music out of what otherwise may have seemed a sordid project.

It strikes me that Renaux has the same incomprehensible charm as that of italian low budget exploitation-movie directors by the likes of Enzo Castellari or Jesús Franco. Always quick to jump on the bandwagon of someone elses sucess and turning out hasty copycat versions, but in the process of their own creative input set against heavy economic limitations manages to pull off something far more interesting or simply too hilarious not to enjoy.
By the same principle, anyone with just money on their mind could not have come up with something this wonderful.


CHRIS CRAFT - INTERPLANETARY CONFLICT

No.25 x 2010 / Philippe Renaux Special No.1

After my recent special on italian producer Alberto Radius, I thought I would continue digging up the forgotten names from the era of the disco producer.
And so I stumbled on Philippe Renaux; french composer, writer, arranger and producer as well as the label boss of the french Carrere sublabel Clever.
The story of his involvment in the disco business starts around 1977, closely after his collaborations with the enigmatic J.P. Massiera.
His full-on production efforts starts with the pretty conventional idea of establishing a disco diva by the name of Toni Van Duyne, a project which seems to have been fully orchestrated by Renaux. But from the get-go, Renaux had his mind set on something cosmic. A theme that would prevail in most of his commitments of the late 1970s and early 80s, and which is clearly evident here on Cosmic Dancer of 1978
On this, the first and only Van Duyne album apart from a handfull of singles, most of the production is soft midtempo disco-pop with modest hints of synthesizers thrown in for a sci-fi-esque effect, to fit the ever prevailing cosmic theme (which seems fuelled by an inspired fascination of Barbarella) . Be A Star works very well though, riding on a perky baseline aided by some funky synth squeezes.


TONI VAN DUYNE - BE A STAR