Cassius' Philippe Zdar: Forever a house icon
People always seem to remember where they first heard their favorite artists, where they first saw them live, and, if you live long enough through your fandom, where you were when you heard they passed. The latter is always horrible, never romantic as the journey to find and love the music that makes up our soundtrack.I was watching my toddler eat a plate of rice when my husband told me. "I... I don't want to ruin your night or anything, but you've said nothing of it yet tonight so....I guess you don't know Phillipe Zdar died."Hold on a second. Could I freeze time and unknow this? Is there some righteous explanation somewhere in the universe that could make me say, "Oh, well, OK then"? No. Zdar had a fatal fall through a roof, much like DJ Mehdi years earlier (wrote about that back then, too). Losing one of your favorite artists is never not awful. Much like I felt with the passing of MCA of the Beastie Boys (another longtime Cassius collaborator) and of course my own city's pride and joy, Prince, I am confused, angry, sad, and ultimately gutted to know I will not get to see or hear new music again.Ironically, the new Cassius album (featuring Mike D. on new single Cause Oui) comes out tomorrow, in a cruel twist of timing. Not that there really is any key time to peace out of this world.Sigh.Cassius. CASSIUS.The beats are so chic, so new sounding even throughout the years. Slicker and sleeker than house brethren Daft Punk, the Cassius sound is instantly fashiony and glittering but without the bratty cheek of electroclash. I first heard them after buying their seminal album 1999 that same year at Cheapo in St. Paul with my friend Yerik (a classmate in college and the person who guided me through the Minneapolis rave scene that year). In one night, I picked up 1999, Shadow's Entroducing, and Basement Jaxx's Red Alert and my life literally changed forever. My world (and dorm room, and baby blue Ford Tempo) was rocked -- what an absolutely bombastic year for dance music. A year later, I would become a writer for City Pages on the dance music beat and continue to hold this music close for decades.All my most beloved house music memories are sealed up in some funky corner of my brain marked 'DANCEFLOOR' and they leak out over time with certain triggers like today's.I first heard Cassius play at a live set on Nikki Beach in Miami in 2002. It was Winter Music Conference and my friend Katie from their then label, Astralwerks, invited me to attend. I watched Philippe and Bombass weave chic French beats and referential disco together against a backdrop of balmy 80 degrees and palm trees, feet in the sand. Their set was sandwiched between Basement Jaxx and an *unmasked* Daft Punk for all of 100 people as the sun was going down. It remains the best night of dance music I've ever heard.In one of my most cherished moments at a dance music journalist, I interviewed Philippe and Bombass a year later in 2003 with the release of 15 Again (notably featuring Pharrell). I instantly remember how engaged the duo was with me: "JJJJJJen! Hi! Hi JJJen! How are you! So excited to chat!" (ugh, French guys and their "Js").I am so honored to have Cassius color so many of my house music stories. Hearing "Feeling For You" (especially the Les Rhythmes Digitales remix) and "1999" back when it was new (and even when it wasn't!) was like a sonic serotonin shot. Even after I stopped writing about music and started DJing, I always without hesitation pulled out those old classics and would knowingly smirk at the feeling of it all coming full circle.SO much love to you, Philippe. Thank you for the memories and the music, for being so astonishingly relevant to us house music fans throughout the last 20 years.I'll be playing some cuts this Sunday at Dance Church in your honor.
