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Hey everyone - welcome back at the discotheque for a very, very special post!
One year ago, I started at the discotheque. It's been an incredibly strange, mad, exciting - and above all, extremely fun ride so far, and I cannot thank everyone enough for their incredible support. What I hope for this post to be - is a retrospective of the blog so far, some fun things, and above all, a thank you post for everyone who has supported and helped with the blog - so without further ado, let's get started!
HOW DID AT THE DISCOTHEQUE ACTUALLY BEGIN?
Okay, so - you might think that there was some massive, life-changing story that led me to start at the discotheque - but in reality, I was just quite bored and wanted to do something cool!
To explain - I started to get really into French house, future funk and disco in late 2024 - and around then, I discovered a bunch of blogs from the late 2000s era of French house, such as Discodust and Solid Goldberger. A few months later, I was knee deep in a bunch of projects - running a label (now defunct) - two musical projects (Hackurr and D87) and also a different blog, while tackling the last few months of my final year at school.
Inspired, I decided to close my old blog and a bunch of other projects to focus on starting a new blog - which was ATD - and I started to draft up ideas in late January / early February, before finally registering the Blogspot domain and making the first post exactly a year ago today.
The first three to four months of ATD were done as just a small hobby, and to relieve stress from my GCSE exams (which I was heavily studying for at the time of the blog being founded!) - it wasn't until late June / early July that I began to really take the blog seriously - I'd consider "Interview Week 2025" - essentially the period between July 1st - 7th that featured five interviews - to be the proper start of the blog.
Also, fun fact: The blog was almost going to be called Swamp Da Diskotheque or just simply Discotheque - looking back, I'm very glad I chose the current name instead!
LET'S TALK ABOUT RELEASES:
Now that the blog has been running for a year - there's been so many amazing releases that have dropped across the last year, ranging from sweet future funk jams, to bumping French house cuts, to smooth nu disco and pounding electro house that would make any well-to-do office worker either throw up or go wild (you can thank SHPESHFTR, Broken Embraces, Artemis Morte and Wire One for that...) - so in no particular order, here are five of my all time favourites from the last year.
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Opierm - Number One EP
Initially blogged in mid-July - Uruguayan filter house producer and DJ Opierm's fourth EP is undoubtedly a personal favourite of mine for many, many reasons - it's produced ridiculously well, it's incredibly versatile, fun, exuberant and above all, it is genuinely brilliant. On this release, you'll find five dope slices of disco infused house which are hard-hitting, ready for any club and in some cases, slightly humorous! (just wait for the French guy raging in Your Twitter Login, it oddly seems to fit..?)
Go and grab it now through Bandcamp.
Aritus & FIBRE - Let Me Go / Forever
Initially blogged at the end of March as part of Virtues Deluxe, which was issued through Hong-Kong based label Neoncity - these two incredible tracks by future funk legends Aritus and FIBRE are nothing short of fantastic. Let Me Go is a complete anthem, and maybe my favourite nu disco track of spring 2025 - it is extremely joyous, buttery smooth and I play it constantly. The softer, slower flip side Forever is also fantastic - however it takes on more of a post-disco / early 80s electro sound, with all of the added sweetness that modern future funk brings.
In short - this release is damn fine. Go and grab it through Bandcamp now.
SHPESHFTR - BANHAMMER
Let's shift focus from all of the smooth filtery, funky cuts for a minute and head over to the blog-era electro house side. Although this single wasn't initially blogged when it dropped (ahem, GCSEs!) - Banhammer, the sophomore single from Ontario-based producer SHPESHFTR is quite frankly insane. Just like a lot of the blog-era electro that's been featured on the blog - this track is ridiculously heavy, dark and electrifying - the sound design is top notch, filled with thick, growly synthesis, abrasive and punchy production (the drums sound insane when cranked loudly!) and some pretty smooth sample trickery - this is definitely one of my favourites from the last year, and if someone asked me where to start with this guy's catalogue, I'd send the link to this instantly.
Banhammer is on all major streaming platforms - but I'm going to link the Bandcamp, where you can download and buy it.
Cassius - Dance On
Initially blogged in the first few days of November - the newest (and unfortunately, final) single from legendary French duo Cassius had to make it here. Sure, it isn't typical filter house - but this track oozes with perfection - it's super, super playful, very, very loose (which is always a good thing for getting wild on the dancefloor, pun not intended!) and it's glamorous, bold and an extremely fine way to end out the production work of an iconic duo. It's smooth, but it's not - it's glitzy, yet bad-ass, it's serious, but also raucous - it's basically everything great about disco, summed up into three minutes of perfection. Hell yeah!
You can find Dance On through Bandcamp, and all major streaming services!
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VA - Creux La Nuit: Volume 3
Initially blogged towards the end of April - the third volume of Creux La Nuit's major compilation series is nothing short of epic. The international collective brought out all of the stops for this compilation - there's classic French house cuts from head honcho Opierm, RollOut and Guv'nor Funk - some sweet modern stuff coming from people such as CitrikkAcid (with a dope Louis La Roche tribute!) - Hackosef and La Bourbelette - also some electro house influenced stuff from Inky, Hollowire and Artemis Morte - truly showcasing the talents of French house's greatest modern collective.
It's ridiculously killer, extremely mad at points and it feels like an amalgamation of everything great about this kind of music. Go and buy it!
LET'S TALK ABOUT SOME NEWS:
Although there's been so, so many amazing drops over the last year - there's also been some crazy events and news spanning practically every scene covered here on ATD - and while there's been tons of fantastic parties, club nights and events - here's some of the most important news of the last year.
FIBRE completed his first major US TOUR!
If you are (or were) based in the US and you're a French house / future funk fan - then there may have been a chance that you managed to catch legendary producer, DJ, multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter FIBRE on tour. For context - 2025 was his first year doing music as a full time job - and from early May to Halloween night, he played a total of fifteen shows all across North America - bringing the heat to Chicago, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Atlanta, New York and Hollywood to name a few (with an additional stop in Toronto for Nightfall's Dysfunktion festival!)
From what I heard, all of the shows were absolutely killer - and I'm sure the tunes were amazing, the vibes were great and the people were awesome - so be sure to go and support one of the biggest legends in disco-infused music right now. Buy his tracks, come to a gig, just spread the word. Funk forever!
The image above is from FIBRE's set at MAGFest 2026 - his Bandcamp page is below!
Nightfall's club night Dysfunktion got huge!
Building onto the mention of Nightfall above - since starting their club night Dysfunktion in November 2024 - it has become one of the most awesome underground house music nights - mixing garage, disco, tech house, and of course future funk - with 2025 being a stellar year for the event. With shows in Las Vegas, Toronto and Los Angeles - a variety of legendary artists have stepped up to the Dysfunktion decks over the last year - including head honcho Monamie, underground stalwarts such as Cherry Condos, GreenTeaWasted, Panic Pop, Elektric Dreams and Lucky Talisman - and heavyweight legends such as FrankJavCee, Mere Notilde and FIBRE - showcasing Dysfunktion as one of the best events around.
The events are fairly often - so keep an eye out on Nightfall's socials for more!
The rise to the top for promising label ADBRK begins...
Although it was initially founded in 2024 - the last year for London-based-label ABBRK has been quite frankly monumental - across the last year, there's been a slew of fantastic singles, all of which ooze with warm, filtery quality. Alongside that, label head Cheers! has been taking the label across the UK at various gigs - even landing a slot at Junction 2 with digital store and streaming service Beatport - and ADBRK's first major party is set to occur on February 21st - with sets from Cheers himself, Known Unknown, Scannell, Rondell, Lu and finally, the incredible Louis La Roche.
To put it simply - ADBRK is going to be huge. You heard it here first.
Find them on Instagram!
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We need to talk about Because Beauborg...
There's no way this wouldn't have ended up on this post. The second day of Because Music's legendary party in Beauborg was genuinely insane - and it had pretty much every electronic music fan shocked, bewildered, and extremely happy. The line-up was insane - we had a bunch of the Ed Banger crew turn up - Breakbot, Irfane, Mayou Picchu, Myd, new signee Tatyana Jane, Sofia Kourtesis, label head Busy P, blog-era legend Erol Alkan, Grammy-nominated producer and DJ Fred Again and finally, one half of Daft Punk, and possibly French touch's biggest legend - Thomas Bangalter, return to the stage.
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As expected - everyone delivered killer sets - but all of the rage was mainly on the legendary quartet that graced the decks at the end of the night - as the internet went wild, Thomas, Pedro, Erol and Fred cooked up a storm, playing some fine, fine selections spanning multiple eras - and it was a legendary return to form particularly for Thomas - as it was his first DJ set in over a decade and a half - making it one of the most important events over the last year!
Justice finished their legendary Hyperdrama tour!
To end out this section of the 1st anniversary post - I thought I'd let things come full circle. The very first thing mentioned on at the discotheque was the fact that Justice had finally won a Grammy for their amazing single Neverender featuring Tame Impala - and just a few months after that, they embarked on the final set of dates in support of their latest (and incredible) new album Hyperdrama. From what I've seen and heard - it was a spectacle - and if you got the chance to catch the legends live - I envy you slightly!
To find out more about Justice - you can follow them on Instagram.
THE SHOUT-OUTS AND THANKS:
Okay, this might take me a while...
Genuinely, it has been such an incredible year. I haven't actually been in these scenes for very long - around a year, at best - but seriously, all of your support has been so incredible to see, and I am forever thankful that I get to blog about all of these amazing scenes. I think a lot of shoutouts are due, so without further ado, I think it's time I get started.
First of all, I want to give a massive thanks to all of the people that supported this blog from its very, very early days - my family, a bunch of the underground future funk scene (especially artists such as Corrout, who was also the first person to be interviewed for the blog - much love!) - I'd like to give my thanks to CrystalForce for being a very early supporter, and also the amazing CitrikkAcid for being an incredibly amazing friend and supporter, who also introduced me to Creux La Nuit back in March of last year.
Building onto that, I would like to give a massive shoutout to the whole of Creux La Nuit - all of you are genuinely incredible people - you are all so, so talented and I am so, so blessed to be able to call myself a member of the collective. I'd like to give some major thank yous to Opierm for being such a fantastic supporter, reader and friend - alongside Luv4Loop - thank you for all of the love - and also many many others - such as Inky, Guv'nor Funk, DJ Double Dutch (your production skills and singing are incredible!) - Phobos (you are hilarious!) - Diskovertz, the legendary DJ Supernick, Hackosef, Hollowire, my fellow friends from Brazil, Le Sorv and mayo1109 - you both rock! - Dequame, 4own and Sboulouf - alongside all of the other amazing members!
I'd like to extend my thanks to all of the amazing labels, some of which are mentioned above - so this can include Montaime, Nightfall, Nuixante, OMEAC, Savona and Discotexas to name a few - alongside their teams and rosters - I'd like to say a massive thank you to Mr. Hoosteen for being such an incredible, supportive and lovely friend - I'd like to say hello and a thank you to the legends FIBRE and Discoholic for being amazing and funny - you make these scenes brighter!
I think it's best we don't forget all of the people that have been interviewed - I'd like to say a massive thank you to SHPESHFTR, the Italian legend Cape Coral, ZeroZed, the incredible Laberge - THANK YOU for being such a wonderful friend, all-round legend and supporter of the blog - you're a legend, and finally - a massive thank you goes out to Louis La Roche for agreeing to be interviewed back in early July - you're one of the most legendary people in nu disco, never forget that!
Moving on to more general shoutouts - I'd like to thank these amazing people for their support over the last year:
Tons of thank yous go to RobClemz, That's Matt, Melonade, QB9, Digitalfoxglove, Moe Shop (I'll say it again, Hardcoded is brilliant!) - my man Merrit, Ghosts of Venice, Nickster, KNMN, DJ Chidow, Peri L'Flamme, Passynth, GeoFunk, Lady Stark, Wire One, CEREAL NG, saynntt amd finally, blip_!
And finally, I'd like to thank you, the readers.
at the discotheque began as just a small hobby - I had no idea at all that it would grow into something as awesome as this - and for that, you have no idea how thankful I am. Without you - the readers, promoters, DJs, producers, organizers, label owners and disco heads - this blog would not be what it is today. You make the blog - I'm just a strange teenager that likes to write about it all!
That being said, there is no way we are stopping here. In fact, there is so, so much planned for the blog - and I am incredibly excited for what's to come next.
P.S - I'm sorry if I forgot anyone in the shoutouts list! I've been writing this post for the last few hours, haha!
Enjoy the daily posts for the next week, everyone - and as always, keep enjoying your stay at the discotheque. It has been a pleasure serving you over the last year!
PEAK POST BRO HBD AT THE DISCOTHEQUE
ReplyDelete2026 WILL BE EVEN BETTER
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ReplyDelete4own 2 3arth mentioned, hype!
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