How did I get into French house / future funk / disco?

Hey everyone - welcome back at the discotheque!

We're now just about halfway through the blog's first anniversary week - and for today's post, I thought I'd shine a light on how I got into French house, future funk and disco - and talk about the artists, releases and labels that helped me discover all of this incredible music and the amazing scenes revolving around it. It's been an oddly long journey - and I hope you enjoy reading about my adventures in disco-led music so far!

Without further ado, let's get started!

THE BEGINNING: (2018-2020)

Okay, so before we actually dig deep into how I found all of this great music - I think some context is needed. Let's go back to the summer of 2019. I had just turned ten years old, and at the time I was having my eyes opened to all sorts of fantastic electronic music - people such as The Prodigy, Fatboy Slim, Basement Jaxx and The Chemical Brothers had dominated my listening habits for months by this point, and I was enthralled by the late 90s rave movement and the genres around it. Before this, I was basically your average kid - I listened to mostly radio pop, generic EDM and the odd bit of rap, so finding rave, big beat and late 90s house seriously made me intrigued about music - and how to make it.

One day, I was scrolling through Spotify and stumbled upon one of Fatboy Slim's live albums (if I remember correctly, it was the Big Beach Boutique 6!) and decided to give it a listen - and I instantly became hooked on the opening track, which was the legendary Clubs by Italian producer His Majesty Andre. This ended up being my first ever exposure to French house, and intrigued, I immediately fell in love with the rest of Andre's discography - his early EPs, released for Cheap Thrills and Moda became staples in my very early DJ sets, and through him I quickly discovered the filtered, disco-infused work of Room 5, Modjo, Stardust, Pete Heller and Junior Jack - who, since then, have played an elemental role in my own productions.

A few months later - in the autumn of 2019, I made a bunch of incredibly important musical discoveries - finding Daft Punk's debut album Homework, Justice's iconic debut Cross, and Thomas Bangalter's edit of Signatune by DJ Mehdi in the same week. Every single release had such amazing qualities that blew my mind - Homework was raw, funky, fresh and super catchy - Cross was daring, wild and unlike anything I'd ever heard before - and Bangalter's edit of Signatune was epic, summery and so, so much fun.

You might think that from here, I started to explore more French touch - but at this time, I was very narrow-minded musically, and stuck to what I knew - I even shunned the rest of Daft Punk's discography because I thought that the rest of their albums were cheesy pop (something which I now deeply, deeply regret!) - so up until early 2021 - His Majesty Andre, early Daft Punk, early Justice and the odd song from various others would be all I'd listen to in the French touch / disco realms. 

WHAT'S A FUTURE FUNK?: (2021-2023)

It's now spring 2021. At this point in my life, I was getting into various different things - such as UK garage, drum and bass and general electronica - which largely meant I had little time for anything disco related - as I was busier in other areas. On a random day sometime in April, I was scrolling through YouTube and found the infamous future funk DJ set from Squad Goals - which was uploaded by Artzie Music in February 2016. Intrigued (likely from the thumbnail of Sailor Moon...) - I gave the first quarter of the mix a listen, and really, really enjoyed it. In that portion of the mix - a bunch of famous names in future funk were included - the legendary FIBRE - who recently was the subject of an Artist Lowdown post - Cape Coral - who has since been interviewed for ATD - Night Tempo - one of the original members of Sailor Team - and several others such as Macross 82-99, Yung Bae and ID Chief.

While I mostly stuck to the genres mentioned above - bits of future funk (alongside a bunch of the French house artists I had discovered a few years back) would trickle into my listening habits - with FIBRE's debut album / compilation 2014-2016 remaining a staple throughout 2021 and 2022 while I was busy discovering other genres, such as IDM, more 90s hip hop and jungle. It wasn't until 2023, when things really began to change for me.

By this point in my life, I had become set on becoming a novelist and music producer - and while brainstorming ideas for my first novel, I started to listen to slightly more future funk to soundtrack my summer - and to also aesthetically fit with the novel's location, which was (ironically) Japan. It was around this time that I discovered another bunch of legendary artists - such as SAINT PEPSI. TANUKI, Moe Shop and Vantage - and I also listened to Discovery by Daft Punk for the very first time, with it permanently altering my music taste forever (and quickly becoming my all time favourite record, a position which it still holds to this day!)

For the rest of the year, I kept on listening to more and more future funk (and lots and lots of Daft Punk!) - and at the end of 2023, I decided to finally really get into future funk and "whatever genre High Life was..." - as it was becoming clear to me that I really, really enjoyed city pop influenced jams which were bright, fun and summery. 

ALL IN: (2024-PRESENT)

I'd say that the last two years of my life have had a massive impact on my tastes - and my activities in music, if you will - because this section will basically cover everything that made me really discover French house and future funk fully - as by the end of 2025 - they'd become my favourite genres of music, especially French house!

The first few months of 2024 were pretty much focused on rave music and future funk (with the odd dash of vaporwave thrown in there too...) - and around this time, I had become a die-hard fan of SAINT PEPSI / Skylar Spence (and I still am, I admit!) - I was regularly buying from legendary labels such as Business Casual and First Class Collective to spin releases from Jingoro, Color Television, Bluntside and UniBe@t, amongst others, and I had slowly started to become involved in the future funk scene, meeting new people and fellow fans. 

It was also around this time that the term "French house" finally caught up with me, and after watching a video essay from Pad Chennington about Guy-Man's label Crydamoure - I got hooked on Le Knight Club, Sedat, Paul Johnson and Play Paul, and began to slowly research several other late 90s acts. A few months later, FIBRE dropped his legendary VaporAid set onto YouTube - and, as a huge fan, I gave it a listen and discovered so, so many amazing artists that have since become my heroes. It is through that mix that I become aware of FIBRE's label Montaime and various artists on its roster - including New York's disco kingpin Mr. Hoosteen, French underground duo and my biggest inspiration - The Phantom's Revenge. 

In the summer of 2024, I began to slowly dual-wield all three genres - spinning a healthy mix of nu disco, future funk and French house into my sets - something which would continue into autumn and winter. By that point, disco-based music had gone from something that I enjoyed, to something that I practically began to obsess over. I discovered the late 2000s wave of French house (aka, the bloghouse movement!) and started listening to Louis La Roche, Poka, Askine and Laberge - and after several months of listening to nothing but French house from all of the major eras of the genre (so, the late 90s, early 2000s and the bloghouse era!) - I decided to start up a platform where I could write about something that I was starting to become really passionate about, while also including future funk and disco too - and that, was this very blog!

Going into 2025, I started to produce more French house and disco-led music to the best of my ability (after various attempts in 2023 / 2024!) and started to really get involved into the wider French touch community, while also keeping tabs on future funk and the odd bit of nu disco if possible - I discovered loads of amazing people, such as the artists at Creux La Nuit, Nuixante, ADBRK and several underground producers and DJs - and I also started taking the blog seriously, with it becoming a serious project of mine in the summer. Furthermore - I began to get so into disco-based music (including some of the classic late 70s / early 80s stuff!) - that from June 2025 onwards - it became my main scene aside from rave music - and I plan to keep it that way!

I could go on for hours and hours about all of the amazing things I've discovered in this year alone - but for now, I'll leave it at this.

My love for these scenes has only grown, and I'm discovering loads of amazing new tracks, artists and general things every single day. I'm super thankful to all of the wonderful people who have led me here - it's been a pleasure so far, and I do not plan to stay any time soon!

If you want to have a look at the tracks that got me started in these scenes + some of my personal favourites - below I've linked by YouTube playlist in case you want to give it a spin!

dreamer eighty seven's favourites

 

I hope you've enjoyed reading this post, everyone - and I hope you found it interesting. I've been trying to spice up the types of things I post on the blog - and I felt like this topic would be good for today.

As always - be sure to support all of the artists featured - and keep enjoying your stay at the discotheque.