Souleance

First EP of the French duo with Pura Vida Sounds / Heavenly Sweetness, the start of a series dedicated to tropical music re-edit.This first volume is dedicated to Séga music from La Réunion.With drums, cowbells and humming sounds Underground bass, the duo crushes and punches the innocent “P’tit Courage” by Sulette to make a wonky warrior anthem.Another bass drum story which knocks out the times of the Disco Sega of Dominique MINGUI& Dera RAKOTOMAVO and pushes the cursors into the red for a powerful remix.

Our final physical release of 2018 at First Word comes courtesy of Souleance, aka the DJ producer duo consisting of Soulist and Fulgeance, with a double A sided single, and a glimpse into one of our forthcoming 2019 releases, ‘French Cassette’ which follows on from Souleance’s acclaimed ‘La Beat Tape’ release from 2013, and again delves into crates of samples with a distinct French flavour.‘François’ is a track dedicated to the one and only François de Roubaix, legendary film score composer, jazz aficionado and one of the duo’s biggest French influences. A delectable slice of 100 bpm instrumental boom bap, built around a seriously infectious jazz-funk groove, and chopped-up vocals.‘Sète’ heads to the south of France, to the beautiful Mediterranean city where Gilles Peterson’s Worldwide Festival takes place. A region that the duo have had love and appreciation of, for many years. This one touches up the tempo a little, with some sun-glazed boogie riding beneath ethereal vocals, samples and sizzling synths.With a decades worth of collaboration between them, and persistent party rocking across Europe, Souleance continue to create tried & tested nuggets of magic for the dancefloor. This double-sided 7” is no exception, and should give you an idea of what to expect from the full beat tape next year. Meanwhile, here’s another essential one for the record bags.

As summer fades and the days get shorter, Souleance have been hard at work in the kitchen cooking up their new EP 'Tartare'. The French production duo of Fulgeance (Ed Banger / Musique Large) and Soulist (What The Funk? / The P Show) have delivered another EP of surefire party starters, taking the sample-heavy template of previous releases, and adding a deeper disco-house edge to stunning effect. The 8-track EP opens with 'Hustle' - a clear statement of intent from Souleance - the shuffling synth-heavy percussion signposting the slight shift in direction, but with it's sights aimed firmly at the dance floor. The track also features regular video collaborator Emile Sacre on keys and vocoder, this time in his music production guise as VECT. Many of you will be familiar with 'Secoue' (released earlier this summer as a digital only single). The Kompa-influenced track has become a DJ's favourite over the festival season and is now finally available on vinyl. Elsewhere 'Ratatouille' starts in more conventional Souleance territory with an infectious horn-led break, before developing into a Giorgio Moroder-inspired disco stomper. Also of note is the elastic bassline-fuelled 'I Got It', which displays a lightness of touch and subtlety rarely seen in dance music. This more mature sound, fused with the DJ-friendly identity of earlier releases shows the progression the duo have made since their debut back in 2009. The artwork that has been a feature of Souleance's releases is present again, with Alice Dufay providing stunning illustration in her idiosyncratic style. The EP also features two remixes - Debruit remixes the title track, blending the Souleance sound and putting his unique stamp on it - in his own words 'an imaginary place where ancient West Africa cohabits with 80's New York'. Finally Dutch newcomer Uffe takes on 'New York', retwisting the keys to create an MPC-style house groove - the perfect conclusion to Souleance's best EP yet.