ARTIST FOCUS: DIMITRI FROM PARIS

Dimitri from Paris isn’t actually from Paris… this Turkish-born French music producer and DJ of Greek descent is however, the ultimate veteran in his field. He started his life-long affair with music, growing up in France, using whatever he could find to “cut and paste” samples from disco hits or into montages he heard on the radio, blending them together to make tapes. This early stage of experimentation would ultimately boost his launch into a career as a DJ.

More than three decades ago, Dimitri began his launch into preeminence with his career. He began his journey at the French station Radio 7, before moving onto Skyrock and finally to Radio NRJ – Europe’s largest DM radio network in 1986. There he was called on to mix records on the air, where he would eventually go on to introduce the first-ever house music show to be broadcast in France.

Due to what he describes as a lack of dance remixers in France, his time in radio would lead to him being called on to re-work tracks for various artists like Björk, New Order and The Brand New Heavies. Amidst this, he would simultaneously produce under the direction of sound designer Michel Gaubert for major fashion houses like Chanel, Jean-Paul, Hermes, Yves Saint-Laurent, Gaulties and Lagerfeld. In the same period, he would also put out two solo EPs from 1993 to 1994 and contributed to the ‘Yellow Productions’ compilation ‘La Yellow 357’.

When Dimitri dropped his first full album in 1996 on Yellow Productions titled, ‘Sacrebleu, it instantly blew up – gaining him worldwide recognition. His distinct sound, the result of his deep-rooted musical influences in 1970s funk and disco sounds, that spawned contemporary house music. Plus additional soundtracks from 1950s and 1960s movies such as, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, La Dolce Vita and The Party, which were sampled in the album – were the parts fused together with electro and block party hip hop, that Dimitri discovered in the 1980s, to create the unique and addictive sound of the album. ‘Sacrebleu’ sold 300,000 copies worldwide and was named Album of the Year by UK’s Mixmag Magazine.

The people did not fret, for Dimitri followed up his massively successful album ‘Sacrebleu’ in 2000 with – A Night at the Playboy Mansion (Virgin) and Disco Forever (BBE). Following close behind with ‘My Salsoul’ in 2001 and ‘After the Playboy Mansion’ in 2002. Dimitri was clearly on a roll with his releases, because in 2003 he dropped another album ‘Cruising Attitude’ and then went on his first outing on UK’s premier dance music label ‘Defected’ with ‘Dimitri from Paris in the House’.

Dimitri has followed, what you can call a glamorous musical path by recording soundtracks and doing advertising campaigns for mega Fashion Houses to remixing hundreds of artists as diverse as James Brown, The Cardigans, Michael Jackson to Quincy Jones. He’s also gone on a different spectrum from his usual work and did the music for the anime, Tsukuyomi: Moon Phase and mixed the soundtrack for the French luxury dessin anime, Jet Groove, produced by Method Films.

The first quarter of the 2000s, specifically 2005, saw Dimitri heading back to his funk and disco roots, with Japanese hip hop producer and uber collector DJ Muro for Super Disco Friends – a double CB mixdown. In 2006, he offered his House of Love outing to Valentine’s Day Lovers and would later produce Los Amigos Invisibles ‘Super Pop Venezuela album’ which earned a nomination for a Grammy Award. Not one to rest on his laurels, 2007 saw the release of the Cocktail Disco project with longtime partner BBE, a handful of disco classic remixes and a ton of other surprises down the line and 2009 saw the release of ‘Night Dubbin’, a post-disco R&B compilation remix album.

Dimitri went on to release five more albums over the next four years: ‘Get Down With the Philly Sound’ in 2010, ‘Knights of the Playboy Mansion’ and ‘The Remix Files’ in 2011, ‘Back in The House’ in 2012 and ‘In the House of Disco’ in 2014. Dimitri has definitely become a master in his career in music, with his rising development over the years and mounting successful, Dimitri shares his thoughts on his climb to the position he is now:

“What happened was that I started DJing and then there were more and more tools — technical tools — available to us DJs that would allow us to make more creative things and eventually to make our own music without actually knowing how to play a particular instrument. With the advent of samplers and other machines at a budget that made them accessible in the mid ’80s, we started making our own tracks. I was also learning the process of how a track is constructed by doing remixes for people. Finally, I was able to produce my own tracks.”

Dimitri from Paris will be taking you on a journey into the New Year with David Morales, as they take over Cafe del Mar on 31st January 2019. Before the two internationally renowned DJs drop us some sick tracks, we took the pleasure of putting together a playlist of Dimitri from Paris’s penetration in the music scene. Scroll down, click play and enjoy folks!

MOST SUCCESSFUL TRACK HIS FIRST FULL – ALBUM (Sacrebleu)

Dimitri From Paris : Sacré Français (1997)

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We’re kicking this playlist off with a major throwback, to Dimitri’s first full-album release in 1997. Slinging out his most successful track of that album.

MOST PLAYED TRACK ON SPOTIFY

Mark Ronson feat. Miley Cyrus – Nothing Breaks Like a Heart (Dimitri From Paris Remix)

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Already a solid track from Mark Ronson and Miley Cyrus, made even better by Dimitri’s banging remix on it.

MOST CHARTED TRACK (charted 9 times)

Holy Ghost! – It’s Not Over (Dimitri From Paris EroDiscoMix)

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I mean, how can we not add a track from Dimitri that’s been on the charts 9 times! It’s just got to happen, the people are just loving it!

HIGH PROFILE SINGLE (2019)

Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike vs. Paris Hilton – Best Friend’s Ass

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We just had to add this one in. Released in May of this year, this track is pretty high profile. The track has got Paris Hilton on it and the Music video features everyone from Kim Kardashian, Ru-Paul peeps to Nikita Dragun. 

ALL TIME FAN FAVOURITE TRACK

Chic – I Want Your Love (Dimitri From Paris Remix)

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Just for you guys, we’ve thrown in Dimitri’s fan favourite track! Can’t deny how much you guys love, how much we love, how much everyone else loves it… we’re all loving it!