For those of us who grew up in the “disco sucks” era—which unfairly spanned the genre’s demise at Comiskey Park at the end of the ’70s to its resuscitation earlier this year when Beyoncé said so—we may be as surprised as Marc Cerrone was to learn of its revival over the past few years. The French drummer was a figurehead of the disco movement before adapting his sound to match those of collaborators like Nile Rodgers and Toto in the ’80s, while managing to remain relevant over the years that followed thanks largely to artists like Beastie Boys and The Avalanches sampling his music (perhaps most reverent were fellow French electronic artists Daft Punk, who did their part to carry on disco’s legacy in their early house music recordings).
With disco seeping back into the zeitgeist 50 years later through pop and hip-hop, though, now’s the perfect time to revisit Cerrone’s discography—which the disco legend himself has been busy doing lately, resulting in a new collection titled Cerrone by Cerrone. While on some level each of these 16 tracks resembles familiar hits from the ’70s, each single has been almost completely reworked—if not remixed—with newly sharpened edges courtesy of the now-DJ who intentionally brought that decade of experience into the project. “I took great pleasure performing with my Ableton Live full of samples from my back catalog, which I love to play and mix live,” he shares. “This is how I had the idea to produce an album like a DJ set—by reproducing 16 of my greatest hits, the same way I would have produced them today.”
With the album out today, Cerrone took a moment to detail the process for revitalizing each of these tracks in the writeup below. Read it and stream along, and order the record here.
1. “Give Me Love”
I only kept a few elements from the original multitracks, like the percussion by Ray Cooper and some guitar riffs by Slim Pézin. Almost everything else was re-produced, and also I love to mix some elements from others tracks (e.g. like the brass riff from “Je Suis Music”). The idea was to recreate the track “live” and then finalize it in-studio. I asked Brendan Reilly, a very talented singer who’s also toured with me for many years now, to re-sing the vocals on this track (and many others on this album) in order to bring a consistent feeling to my reworks, exactly as I used to do in my early albums.
2. “My Desire”
I kept some of the brass, but most of the track was redone live on stage and then finalized in-studio, just like “Give Me Love,” and Brendan Reilly redid the vocals.
3. “Got to Have Lovin’”
I composed this track with my old friend and accomplice Don Ray back in 1977. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the multitracks anymore, therefore I had to completely redo the track, attempting to be as close as possible to the original and then using the same process as for the others (live play plus studio finalizing). It was a real pleasure doing this one.
4. “Look for Love” (The Reflex Revision)
This one is a remix from a great DJ, The Reflex, with whom I worked. We had the bass redone by Frenando Rosa and the final structure was found using the “live test” as for the others tracks.
5. “The Only One” (Mercer Remix)
This is a remix done by another great DJ and producer, Mercer, with whom I collaborated many times and who did an incredible job.
6. “Cerrone’s Paradise” (Dave Lee Soulful Mix)
Dave Lee (f.k.a. Joey Negro) made a great remix of this track while being faithful to the original elements from the multitracks. He also added a very nice and funky bass.
7. “Love in C Minor” (Dimitri From Paris’ Remix)
Dimitri From Paris is a worldwide renowned remixer and producer whom I proposed to participate on this whole remixes project for the album. And he did it very well!
8. “Je Suis Music”
I wanted to modernize this track by adding an “electro” flavor to it. Although there were some good remixes that were made back in 2004 (by Armand Van Helden), I wanted to do something completely new, therefore I reproduced most of the track, keeping only some key elements as the horns. Again, Brendan Reilly re-sang the lead vocals.
9. “Standing in the Rain”
This is another track I composed with my friend Don Ray back in 1977. For this one, too, the multitracks were missing, so I had to reproduce it completely with a new lead vocal by Brendan Reilly.
10. “Call Me Tonight”
“Call Me Tonight” was first released in 1979 on the Cerrone V - Angelina album, which was co-produced with Toto. I found the track needed a modern rework, so I’ve redone it with the same process as in “Give Me Love,” “My Desire,” etc. using live testing and studio finalizing, again with Brendan Reilly’s lead vocals, which he did brilliantly.
11. “Took Me So Long”
I wanted to bring it to the pure disco style, the good old days of NY venues I’ve known at Studio 54, and the voice of Brendan Reilly helped me to bring a more modern touch to it.
12. “The Impact”
This one is based on both a remix by Mercer and the original version. I worked with the stems of each version to get the best combination.
13. “Hooked on You”
Another rework based on the original multitracks with a more up-to-date sound and again lead vocals redone by Brendan Reilly.
14. “You Are the One”
This track was fully redone in a much more up-to-date sound; again I’ve kept only a few elements from the original, but much of it, including the lead vocals, was redone and re-recorded.
15. “Striptease”
This is an early electro track I composed for a soundtrack to a French film, Brigade Mondaine. This one also had been through a complete reworking process, as I didn’t have the multitracks anymore.
16. “Supernature”
Probably the least “tempered with” track of them all on the album, because the original arrangements were already so incredible thanks to the talent of Don Ray. Therefore only the lead vocals were re sung by Brendan Reilly and the drums were boosted to match the rest of the sound color of the album. I always like to finish my sets with this track, as it holds to an incredible and shared musical journey with the audience.
