C2C are a French DJ quartet who dabble in the art of Turntabalism, ‘a highly technical yet intensely musical discipline, with performers using turntables as a bona fide musical instrument.’
Officially formed in 1998, the four DJs met at high school in Nantes, France. C2C consists of 20Syl, DJ Greem, DJ Atom and DJ pFel. They are more widely known for their successes on the turntable competition circuit having won the DMC World Team Championship four times successively from 2003-2006. They were also inducted into the DMC Hall of Fame in 2010.
As well as performing as C2C the group have two side projects. Hocus Pocus was formed by 20syl and Greem in 2006. They have released a gold certified album with label Motown. Atom and pFel created Beat Torrent, which focused more on the electronic French scene.
All in all these guys are a talented bunch. Now in their thirties they’ve decided to release a record collectively as C2C combining the jazz elements of Hocus Pocus and the electronic elements of Beat Torrent which has resulted in the album TETR4 where this weeks single of the week Arcades comes from.
I have to say I was personally apprehensive of this weeks single when I discovered it was a DJ group, because how many people can take a sample and stick it in Logic and create a song out of it these days? However, the more I researched their history and the more I listened to their past and present work, the more I liked them. All the samples were recorded by the group, sometimes on vintage instruments, in order to get the 70s sound that they like.
Arcades opens with a generic electronic DJ sound and a driving beat that slowly builds with each scratch and vocal inflection. They then introduce a very baroque like sound with some harpsichord chords followed by an electronic sound that made me reminisce over my game boy days. With interwoven textures of sampled brass, classical choir and percussion this track doesn’t lend itself to any genre in particular.
When C2C say that their turntables are their instruments, they really mean it. Instead of meaningless scratches I heard an orchestrated, rhythmic symphony that slowly died away to the steady groove of what could have been an early 90s r ‘n’ b or smooth hip hop track.
It’s so difficult to describe the satisfying groove at the end without making everyone listen to it…. so my verdict this week is: DOWNLOAD IT!
-TWSH
Download Arcades and TETR4
Find out more about C2C (just a heads up: most of it’s in French):
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Find out more about the DJs and their side projects:
