Album review

Cassius

Electronic Jigsaw Puzzles

Paris 

04/10/2002 - 

Cassius rank alongside Daft Punk and Air as one of the most inventive duos on the French synthetic pop-house scene. The symbiotic twosome, made up of Philippe Zdar and Hubert Boombass , are currently back in the music news with their second album, Au rêve . And this new masterpiece looks set to assure French electro's prime position on dancefloors around the world!

We caught up with Cassius in an old variety studio at the foot of Butte Montmartre which Zdar recently bought as a present to himself. The place is buzzing when we arrive as the pair are about to play a live radio set on Parisian FM station "FG" to promote their new album. Surrounded by a bunch of DJ friends and an impressive stack of vinyl LPs, Zdar has his fingers primed on the turntables while Boombass stands ready behind his sampler.

Twelve years have passed since Zdar and Boombass first teamed up on an MC Solaar production. And, while both have been involved in successful electro outfits (Boombass in La Funk Mob and Zdar in Motorbass), sparks really began to fly with the release of their first joint album, 1999 . The debut Cassius album hit the spot with its upbeat rhythms and sophisticated samples drawn from the land of 'funkitude'. But three years on we find a very different Cassius emerging. Forsaking their samples (their new album features no more than two!), Zdar and Boombass have returned to the world of real instruments and vocal harmonies. And as the tension builds in the count-down to their live radio set, Boombass agreed to give us a sneak preview of the new Cassius sound:

RFI: One of the things that interests me most about Au rêve is that as far as the recording of the album goes you did the exact opposite of what you normally do…
Boombass: When we were in the studio together this time round we really tried to come up with things that would surprise ourselves. The thing is, when we started work on the new album we quickly came to realise that the tracks sounded too much like the last album. We really felt it was time to stand back and take stock of things, then branch out in a new direction and get our kicks a different way…

RFI: After all, you've moved on a lot in your personal lives too!
Boombass: Well, let's face it, we're 35 now and we've both got kids so it was high time for us to move on and do something different. Our music's evolved a lot, as has our approach to work in general and the equipment we use in the studio. I think what triggered the whole thing off was recording the track I’m A Woman with Jocelyn Brown at the end of '99.

RFI: That's someone we hadn't heard anything from for at least ten years, since she worked with the Mauritian star JP Maunick's group Incognito, in fact …
Boombass: Well, Jocelyn had actually done stuff since then. She's put out quite a few EPs, in fact. But she'd also had some bad experiences with unscrupulous people ripping her off and using her voice without her permission. Our collaboration with Jocelyn was a totally positive experience from the word go and it changed our lives because we found ourselves doing a song for the first time – because we actually had a singer to work with! The experience made us stand back and question things. We sort of turned round and said to ourselves 'Wow! it's pretty good writing real songs with words, verses, choruses and things! There's a real structure here!' I think that's basically what triggered off our new way of working.

RFI: Why did you decide to record in English rather than French?
Boombass: We weren't into the idea of singing in French! We're lucky enough to have an album that can be released in 25 or 30 different countries around the world, whereas if we'd recorded in French we would have limited ourselves to 3! And then let's face it, singing in French and having to follow in the footsteps of someone like Gainsbourg, that's no easy business! To be honest, Jocelyn Brown just sings so well we couldn't resist the idea of recording in English. And then all these other great Anglo-Saxon artists came on board like Steve Edwards, Leroy Burgess, Ghostface and Gladys.

RFI: Protection , the song Gladys guests on, has to be one of the most original tracks on the new album...
Boombass: Well, for a start, Protection stands out because it's a track without a beat. It's something we'd been wanting to do for a long while now actually. It's not really a song at all, strictly speaking, it's more like a slogan repeated over and over from start to finish. It's a mix that I find really moving in some way. RFI: Does the Cassius symbiosis mean there's always one of you to keep an eye on what the other one's doing?
Boombass: Yes, and that's really the key to everything. I spent a long time trying to make music on my own – and I have to say that's something I would never, ever do again! I'm into the idea of starting something off on my own, when I'm alone at home in the middle of the night. But I really feel it's better when there are at least two of you. Zdar knows my weak spots and I know his. We know each other so well now that we don't even have to argue. We know when the other one's not really giving his all to something, and that's that. OK, so we fall out with each other every now and then, but it only lasts about five seconds and then everything's all right again. It's never very serious.

RFI: When it comes to the vocal side of things on the new album, there seems to be someone missing…
Boombass: Ah, you mean, Zdar ! That was really a new thing we experimented with this time round. What happened was we recorded this track in the studio and had a whale of a time doing it, but in the end we weren't sure we really wanted to keep it on the album as it felt much too slow. So, to cut a long story short, we speeded it up!

RFI: Zdar's voice has also been speeded up on See Me Now , hasn't it? Is that what explains the peculiarly high pitch of his voice?
Boombass: Well, we more or less speeded everything up on that track. We ended up putting the whole thing through about 50,000 electronic boxes! We spent a lot of time messing around with machines and really blowing the sound up. And See Me Now is actually one of my favourite tracks now. It's got to be the most personal song on the new album too, together with the opening track Hi Water. That's a track we recorded in no time at all, the last track we recorded for the album, in fact.

RFI: And is that why you chose to use Hi Water as the opening track?
Boombass: Exactly! We enjoy being a bit paradoxical from time to time. Hi Water holds a very special place in my heart. When we finished the final take we just fell into each other's arms and wept as we listened to it over again. Believe me, that's one hell of a special memory!

RFI: Is The Sound Of Violence meant to be a particularly violent track?
Boombass: I love the bass line on that track, you know, it's got this really pure, pared-down structure. And I really get off on the guitars which are played by M aka Mathieu Chedid, the third 'secret' member of Cassius. What happened was M started playing along to I’m A Woman one day while Philippe was in the studio with him mixing M's own album Je dis aime. Anyway, they hit it off together and became the greatest of friends, then I was introduced to M and we became big mates too. Anyway, one day I heard him do guitar on I’m A Woman and it just blew me away! Mathieu was always popping in and out of the studio to do these big guitar-hero solos. He's a musician who's totally generous with his time and effort. And, as far as I'm concerned, he's one of the best guys I've ever heard on guitar. I'm not just talking about technique either, there's a real personality and emotion that comes across when he plays.

RFI: It's a new thing for Cassius to use real musicians on an album…
Boombass: We literally went out on a shopping spree and bought all these guitars, keyboards and bass guitars. We play a bit of all of them, although admittedly not very well! So sometimes you need to get a bit of "raw talent" on board, like Ernie Watts, for instance, who came along to play sax. We got backing singers in this time round too. It was like normal musical sessions with real musicians – this isn't an album with samples!

RFI: You always seem to manage to inject lots of different ambiences into your work. Your tracks never feel linear…
Boombass: I'd say our music's like a gigantic jigsaw puzzle really. It's like we've got all these different ideas buzzing round our heads and then we string them together into a sort of musical 'journey'. Sometimes we even come up with our own hybrid forms of a song. We take different versions of the same track, for instance, then chop them up and stick them back together again. Each time we try and make the track sound different, adding in different co-stars and putting the pieces of the puzzle together again in new ways.

RFI: Thrilla is the first rap song you've done since your collaboration with MC Solaar. Was this a deliberate return to your roots?
Boombass: Man, I have to say it was really major working with Ghostface Killah from Wu Tang Clan! It's the first time we've ever worked with an American, you know. Ghostface had a blast rapping away at 123 BPM – it's hardly the normal tempo in the rap world! He recorded his vocals for us in New York and at the Paramount Studio in Los Angeles.

RFI: And what about the title track, Au rêve , is that meant to be the final overture?
Boombass: Absolutely, I love that track! That was Mathieu again messing around in the studio with this old rhythm box called an "Echoplex". You do your solo and then you get this real delay in the playback. Anyway, Mathieu really went for his guitar-hero solo, it lasted around seven or ten minutes, and we really went wild!

RFI: To sum it up then, Au rêve, is an album that is completely and utterly you!
Boombass: Yes, we really gave it our all! You have to remember the album was made over a very long period. It took two years, so it's like a slice of our life. Au rêve is more than an album, in fact, it's an integral part of our friendship!

Cassius Au rêve Virgin 2002

Gérard  Bar-David

Translation : Julie  Street