Last night we attended a hugely entertaining discussion between DJ, producer and remixer Dimitri from Paris, and Classic Album Sundays founder (and DJ) Colleen Cosmo Murphy.

The purpose of the night was to introduce Salsoul Mastermix – a compilation of Dimitri’s re-edits of a number of classics from the legendary disco label. It rapidly turned into a fascinating, good humoured chat about the rise and fall of disco, and the art (and business) of remixing. A very pleasant surprise was the un-planned addition of Francois Kevorkian, who was invited up to join in and spoke at length about his experiences in New York, first as a drummer, then as A&R man for Prelude Records, including being invited to remix the famed producer Patrick Adams. The discussions also covered at length what made Salsoul unique as a label, and how it differed from the likes of Philadelphia International, despite extensive overlap of their house musicians and arrangers.

Dimitri-from-Paris-FrancoisK-Colleen-Cosmo-Murphy

The event took place at Eagle London, the home of the brilliant Horse Meat Disco (who were also in attendance), so of course lots of examples were played over the soundsystem. All three participants came across as having both an enyclopedic knowledge of dance music history (in Francois’ case because he was actually there DJ-ing and producing from around 1976), but also a great love of the music itself, which comes across when you hear any of them play. The evening was recorded, so if you’d like to watch it back, the link is here.

So many thanks to Classic Album Sundays for a great evening. The Spotify link to Dimitri’s Salsoul Mastermix is below.